Antioxidant Capacity of Phenolic Phytochemicals From Various Cultivars of Plums
Antioxidant Capacity of Phenolic Phytochemicals From Various Cultivars of Plums
Antioxidant Capacity of Phenolic Phytochemicals From Various Cultivars of Plums
www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem
Department of Food Science and Technology, Cornell University, Geneva, NY 14456, USA
b
Korea Food Research Institute, Bundang, Seongnam, Kyounggi 463-746, South Korea
Received 27 May 2002; received in revised form 9 September 2002; accepted 9 September 2002
Abstract
Polyphenolic phytochemical extractions of six cultivars of plums (Beltsville Elite B70197, Cacak Best, French Damson, Long
John, Stanley, Yugoslavian Elite T101) and Gala apples were performed using 80% aqueous methanol with ultrasound assistance
and extracts were analyzed for total phenolics, avonoids, and antioxidant capacity. The total phenolic contents of various cultivars
of plums were in a range of 174 to 375 mg/100 g, expressed as gallic acid equivalents (GAE), on a fresh weight basis. Total avonoid concentrations ranged from 118 to 237 mg catechin equivalents (CE)/100 g fresh weight. The concentrations of total phenolics
and avonoids in Gala apples were 118 1.4 mg GAE and 62.0 6.9 mg CE per 100 g fresh sample weight, respectively. The stable
radical chromogen, ABTS, commonly employed for the antioxidant activity measurement, was used to evaluate antioxidant
capacity of plums and apples. The total antioxidant capacities, expressed as vitamin C equivalent antioxidant capacity (VCEAC), of
fresh plums ranged from 266 to 559 mg/100 g. The order of total antioxidant capacity among dierent plum cultivars was as follows: Beltsville Elite B70197 >Cacak Best5French Damson> Yugoslavian Elite T101> Long John >Stanley. The total antioxidant
capacity of fresh Gala apple was 205 5.6 mg VCEAC/100 g. There was a good correlation between total phenolics or avonoids
contents and VCEAC at the high level of P< 0.001. Dietary polyphenolics from plums may supply substantial antioxidants, which
may provide health-promoting advantages to the consumer.
# 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
Keywords: Antioxidant capacity; Free radical; Phenolic phytochemicals; Plums; Vitamin C equivalent antioxidant capacity (VCEAC)
1. Introduction
Phenolic phytochemicals are important aromatic secondary metabolites in plants, many of which are commonly substituted by sugar moieties such as glucose,
arabinose, xylose, rhamnose and galactose. Signicant
amounts of phenolic compounds frequently occur in
foods such as fruits and vegetables and are routinely
consumed in our diet. They importantly attribute to the
sensory qualities (colour, avour, taste) of fresh fruits,
vegetables and their products. In addition, many phenolic phytochemicals have antioxidative, anticarcinogenic, antimicrobial, antiallergic, antimutagenic
and antiinammatory activities (Cao & Cao, 1999;
Eberhardt, Lee, & Liu, 2000; Ito et al., 1998; Kawaii,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-315-787-2271; fax: +1-315-7872284.
E-mail address: [email protected] (C.Y. Lee).
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2.2. Chemicals
Gallic acid, ABTS as diammonium salt, (+)-catechin
and Folin & Ciocalteus phenol reagent were obtained
from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO, USA). 2,20 Azobis(2-amidino-propane)dihydrochloride
(AAPH)
was obtained from Wako Chemicals USA, Inc. (Richmond, VA, USA). All other chemicals used were of
analytical grade.
2.3. Extraction of phenolics
The phenolics in powdered freeze-dried plums and
apples were extracted by the ultrasound-assisted
method (Kim & Lee, 2002). Phenolics of the fruits were
extracted from 10 g ground freeze-dried samples using
100 ml of 80% aqueous methanol. The mixture of
freeze-dried powder and 80% aqueous methanol was
sonicated for 20 min with continual nitrogen gas purging. The mixture was ltered through Whatman #2
lter paper (Whatman International Limited, Kent,
England) using a chilled Buchner funnel and rinsing
with 50 ml 100% methanol. Extraction of the residue
was repeated using the same conditions. The two ltrates were combined and transferred into a 1 l evaporating ask with an additional 50 ml of 80% aqueous
methanol. The solvent was evaporated using a rotary
evaporator at 40 C. The remaining phenolic concentrate was rst dissolved in 50 ml of 100% methanol
and diluted to a nal volume of 100 ml using distilled
deionized water (ddH2O) obtained with a NANOpure
water system (Barnstead, Dubuque, Iowa, USA). The
mixture was centrifuged at refrigerated temperatures,
using a Sorvall RC-5B refrigerated superspeed centrifuge (Du Pont Company, Biomedical Products
Department, Wilmington, DE, USA) at 10 K with GSA
rotor for 20 min and stored at 4 C until analyses were
performed.
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3. Results
3.1. Determination of total phenolics
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Fig. 2. Vitamin C equivalent antioxidant capacity (VCEAC) of various cultivars of plum and Gala apple using free blue-green ABTS
radical anions. The data are displayed with meanstandard deviation
(bars) of six replications. VCEACs showed signicant dierence
except between CB and FD at the level of P<0.05. GA, ST, LJ, YE,
FD, CB and BE stand for Gala apple, Stanley, Long John, Yugoslavian Elite T101, French Damson, Cacak Best and Beltsville Elite
B70197, respectively.
4. Discussion
The total phenolic content of 100 g fresh plums ranged from 174 to 375 mg GAE and for Gala apples,
118 1.4 mg GAE (Fig. 1). Based on the total phenolics, the six plum cultivars studied may be classied
into two groups, one exhibiting relatively high levels of
polyphenolic phytochemicals and the other, low levels.
The cultivars having relatively high concentrations of
phenolic phytochemicals are French Damson, Beltsville
Elite B70197 and Cacak Best, whereas the cultivars with
lower concentrations are Stanley, Long John and
Yugoslavian Elite T101. The total phenolic content of
French Damson was about 2.2-fold higher than that of
Stanley. French Damson and Stanley plums showed
about 3.2 and 1.5 times higher total phenolic level than
Gala apples, respectively. Plums were previously shown
to have a higher total phenolic content than apples
(Proteggente et al., 2002). The averages of total phenolic
content of plums and apples were signicantly dierent at
a level of P< 0.001. Total phenolic content of a mixture of
red plums (Black Star, Ciruela Santa Rosa, Raviota, June
Black), cultivars of which were dierent from ours, was
reported to be at the level of 320 mg GAE/100 g (Proteggente et al., 2002). Another study reported that total
phenols of black plums was 144 mg/100 g, expressed as
325
antioxidant activity than apples, an increased consumption of this fruit is therefore recommended in
our diet.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Ms. Nancy Smith, research support specialist, for revising the text and providing technical support and Mr. Jay Freer for selecting and
providing the cultivars of plums.
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