Aim To assess the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of Calendula officinalis tea formulation. Materials and methods In this study, a formulation of 2 grams of dried marigold flower petals and 100 milliliters (ml) of distilled water was subjected to anti-inflammatory testing using albumin denaturation assay and anti-protease activity and antioxidant testing by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate) assay. An independent sample t-test was done to compare the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potentials of marigold tea formulation and control using SPSS version 22.0 software (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY), and any p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results The highest anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of marigold extract were exhibited at 10 microliters (µl) and 20 µl (p-value = 0.002 and 0.000), respectively. The anti-inflammatory activity was higher than the control at all concentrations, whereas the antioxidant activity was higher at lower concentrations when compared to higher concentrations. Conclusion Marigold flower tea formulation exhibited better anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities than the controls and therefore could be evaluated as a potential therapeutic agent.

Marigold flower (Tagetes erecta L) is one of the richest sources of xanthophylls. An enzymatic pretreatment method was developed for improved extraction of pigments from marigold flowers. Pretreatment with enzyme solution increased the diffusion coefficient from 1.56 x 10(-9) m(2)/s to 4.02 x 10(-9) m(2)/s and mass transfer coefficient from 0.14 h(-1) to 0.36 h(-1) coefficients. At the same time, dry yield, resin yield and pigment yield were also found to increase along with increased retention of colour. Sodium hydroxide or citric acid pretreatments increased the diffusion coefficient during drying, but resulted in lower dry yield due to loss of soluble compounds whereas, pigment yield was higher as compared to control. The enzyme treated and air dried sample, stored at 4 °C was found to be the most stable, as indicated by a low (0.0006 day(-1)) degradation constant. Pretreatment of marigold flowers with an aqueous enzyme solution (0.2%) results in improved resin, pigment yield and retention of pigment during storage. Pretreatment of marigold flowers with sodium hydroxide citric acid followed by hydraulic pressing resulted in a significant reduction of water and also indicated improved dry yield, resin yield and pigment yield as compared to control sample.