Phytochemical composition of extracts from yerba mate chimarrão

Yerba mate is a tree natural from South America, traditionally daily consumed as hot ( chimarrão ) or cold ( tereré ) and roasted leaves (mate tea) infusions, being an important source of polyphenols and flavonoids in human nutrition. To produce bioactive-rich extracts from yerba mate, oven-dried leaves at 35 °C and three different commercial products, named M, T, and S, were extracted using different General Recognized as Safe solvents (distilled water (W), ethanol (E), and water: ethanol (1:1, v:v) (WE)). The yerba mate extracts were analyzed for total and soluble solids, titratable acidity, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and antioxidant activity. The WE solvent resulted in the highest TPC and TFC. However, the commercial samples showed a higher concentration of phytochemicals than oven-dried leaves, and the commercial sample T showed the lowest content of total solids and the highest content of soluble solids (°Brix). The industrial processing of yerba mate aids the TPC and TFC preservation, resulting in extracts with superior phytochemicals concentration when compared with the oven-dried sample.