Phenolic acids antioxidant activity

Table 5.6 shows the total phenolic content (determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu assay) and antioxidant activity (ABTS radical scavenging capacity) of extracts from morama bean seed coat and cotyledon prepared with acidified mefhanol. If is clear fhaf morama bean seed coat and cotyledon have appreciable levels of fofal phenolics and antioxidant activity. These phenolics are concentrated in the seed coat. It has been reported that the morama bean cotyledon contains high levels of the amino acid tyrosine (Maruatona et ah, 2010) which is phenolic in nature and can therefore confribufe fo fhe fofal phenolic content of the cotyledon as determined with the Folin-Ciocalteu assay. 

Oxidative cellular damage by reactive oxygen species such as superoxide anion, hydroperoxy and hyassociated with various human chronic diseases, e.g. cancers, inflammation, arthritis, atherosclerosis and also with the process of ageing. Claims that diet and increased intake of nutrients exhibiting antioxidative activity have a preventative effect on chronic diseases have increased in recent years. In this context, polyphenolic compounds such as tannins, flavonoids, coumarins, lignans and caffeic acid derivatives, which are abundantly contained in a large number of medicinal plants, foods and beverages, are of particular interest for human health care because of the antioxidative properties widely found in plant phenolics. The antioxidative activity of tannins has been extensively studied in various in vitro and in vivo experimental systems and summarized in reviews [96, 97]. Such activity includes the inhibition of lipid peroxidation induced by NADPH-ADP and ascorbic acid-ADP in rat liver microsomes and mitochondria, respectively... 

Long-chain esters of pentaerythritol have been prepared by a variety of methods. The tetranonanoate is made by treatment of methyl nonanoate [7289-51-2] and pentaerythritol at elevated temperatures using sodium phenoxide alone, or titanium tetrapropoxide in xylene (12). PhenoHc esters having good antioxidant activity have been synthesized by reaction of phenols or long-chain aUphatic acids and pentaerythritol or trimethyl olpropane (13). 

The antioxidative activities of polymeric antioxidants prepared from Verona oil and the conventional phenolic antioxidant 3-(3,5-di-terf-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)propionic acid (DTBH), chemically grafted to polystyrene and polyurethanes, is similar and in some cases even better than that of the corresponding low-MW phenolic antioxidants [81]. 

In addition to phenolic substances, there are other components present in foods which have no antioxidant activity of their own, but which increase that of phenolic antioxidants. They are called synergists, and they should be accounted for in any discussion of antioxidant activity. Polyvalent organic acids, amino acids, phospholipids (lecithin) and various chelating agents belong to this group. Proteins may modify the efficiency of antioxidants as they react with the reaction products of both antioxidants and synergists. 

RICE-EVANS c A, MILLER N J and PAGANGA G (1996) Structure-antioxidant activity relationships of flavonoids and phenolic acids, Free Rad Biol Med, 20, 933-56. 

Mpofu A, Sapirstein HD, and Beta T (2006), Genotype and environmental variation in phenolic content, phenolic acid composition, and antioxidant activity of hard spring wheat , J Agric Food Chem, 54, 1265-1270. 

Phytochemicals present in fruits and vegetables are very diverse, such as ascorbic acid, carotenoids, and phenolic compounds (Liu 2004 Percival and others 2006 Syngletary and others 2005 Yahia and others 2001a, 2001b). Plant polyphenols are ubiquitous in the diet, with rich sources being tea, wine, fruits, and vegetables they demonstrate considerable antioxidative activity in vitro, which can have important implications for health (Duthie and others 2000). 

Fresh peppers are excellent sources of vitamins A and C, as well as neutral and acidic phenolic compounds (Howard and others 2000). Levels of these can vary by genotype and maturity and are influenced by growing conditions and processing (Mejia and others 1988 Howard and others 1994 Lee and others 1995 Daood and others 1996 Simmone and others 1997 Osuna-Garcia and others 1998 Markus and others 1999 Howard and others 2000). Peppers have been reported to be rich in the provitamin A carotenoids (3-carotene, a-carotene, and (3-cryptoxanthin (Minguez-Mosquera and Hornero-Mendez 1994 Markus and others 1999), as well as xanthophylls (Davies and others 1970 Markus and others 1999). Bell peppers have been shown to exert low antioxidant activity (Al-Saikhan and others 1995 Cao and others 1996 Vinson and others 1998) or may even act as pro-oxidants (Gazzani and others 1998). 

Miller NJ and Rice-Evans CA. 1997. The relative contributions of ascorbic acid and phenolic antioxidants to tiie total antioxidant activity of orange and apple fruit juices and blackcurrant drinks. Food Chem... 

Patras A, Brunton NP, DaPieve S and Butler F. 2009. Impact of high pressure processing on total antioxidant activity, phenolic, ascorbic acid, anthocyanin content and colour of strawberry and blackberry puree. Innov Food Sci Emerg Technol doi 10.1016/j.ifset.2008.12.004. 

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