Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)

The objective of this study was to develop a method of extraction of antioxidants (carnosic acid and rosmarinic acid) from two populations of rosemary (Borj Cedria and Djebel Abderrahmane) using two methods: solvent extraction and microwave extraction.The results of our study showed that the microwave extraction method is more cost-effective than the solvent extraction method. In the latter method, hexane is the best solvent for extraction. The quantitative analysis by HPLC showed that the population of Borj Cedria presents a better yield in carnosic acid in comparison with the population of Djebel Abderrahmane. This analysis also showed that rosmarinic acid is present in trace form only in the hexanic extracts for both populations.