Vegetables, antioxidant capacity

Cao G, Sofic E and Prior RL. 1996. Antioxidant capacity of tea and common vegetables. J Agric Food Chem 44 3426-3431. 

Chun OK, Kim DO, Smith N, Schroeder D, Han JT and Lee CY. 2005. Daily consumption of phenolics and total antioxidant capacity from fruit and vegetables in the American diet. J Sci Food Agric 85 1715-1724. 

Because part of the total content of antioxidant polyphenols and carotenoids is linked to DF as noted previously, an appreciable proportion of the total antioxidant capacity in fruits and vegetables is associated with DF. 

TDAC in the Spanish diet has been estimated at 3,500 pimol Trolox equivalents by the ABTS method. The contribution of each specific food to the TDAC was dependent on both food intake and food antioxidant capacity. The largest contributors to the TDAC were beverages (about 68%) and fruits and vegetables (about 20%). 

Podsedek A. 2007. Natural antioxidant capacity of Brassica vegetables a review. LWT Food Sci Technol 40(1) 1—11. 

The photochemiluminiscence (PCL) assay was initially used by Popov and others (1987). Popov and Lewin (1994 1996) have extensively studied this technique to determine water-soluble and lipid-soluble antioxidants. The PCL assay measures the antioxidant capacity, toward the 02 radical, in lipidic and water phase. This method allows the quantification of both the antioxidant capacity of hydrophilic and/or lipophilic substances, either as pure compounds or complex matrices from different origin synthetic, vegetable, animal, human, etc. The PCL method is based on an approximately 1,000-fold acceleration of the oxidative reactions in vitro by the presence of an appropriate photosensitizer. The PCL is a very quick and sensitive method. Chua and others (2008) used this assay to determine the antioxidant potential of Cin-namomum osmophloeum, whereas Kaneh and Wang and others (2006) determined the antioxidant capacity of marigold flowers. The antioxidant activity of tree nut oil extracts was also assessed by this method (Miraliakbari and Shahidi 2008). 

An improved method has been developed and validated using fluorescein as the fluorescent probe (Ou and others 2001). This modification provides a direct measure of hydrophilic chain-breaking antioxidant capacity against peroxyl radical. This method has been applied in vegetables of many kinds (Ou and others 2002 Cho and others 2007) and in tropical fruits (Talcott and others 2003 Mahattanatawee and others 2006). 

Sanchez-Morcno (2002) considered that this assay is an easy and accurate method for determining antioxidant capacity in fruit and vegetable samples. The DPPH assay has been used to determine the antioxidant activity of polyphenols (Sanchez-Moreno and others 1998 Bao and others 2004) flavonols (Jimenez and others 1998 1999 Choi and others 2002) anthocyanin-based natural colorants from berries (Espin and others... 

Cao G, Booth, SL, Sadowski JA and Prior RL. 1998. Increases in human plasma antioxidant capacity after consumption of controlled diets high in fruit and vegetables. Am J Clin Nutr 68(5) 1081—1087. 

Elez-Martinez P and Martin-Belloso O. 2007. Effects of high intensity pulsed electric field processing conditions on vitamin C and antioxidant capacity of orange juice and gazpacho, a cold vegetable soup. Food Chem 102(l) 201-209. 

Honer K and Cervellati R. 2002b. Measurements of the antioxidant capacity of fruits and vegetables using the BR reaction method. Eur Food Res Technol 215(5) 437—442. 

Jiang H, Ji B, Liang J, Zhou F, Yang Z and Zhang H. 2006. Comparison on the antioxidant capacity of selected fruits and vegetables and their separations. Chem Nat Compd 42(4) 410-414. 

Kevers C, Falkowski M, Tabart J, Defraigne JO, Dommes J and Pincemail J. 2007. Evolution of antioxidant capacity during storage of selected fruits and vegetables. J Agric Food Chem 55(21) 8596-8603. 

Nilsson J, Pillai D, Onning G, Persson C, Nilsson A and Akesson B. 2005. Comparison of the 2,2 -azinobis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) methods to asses the total antioxidant capacity in extracts of fruit and vegetables. Mol Nutr Food Res 49(3) 239-246. 

Ninfali P and Bacchiocca M. 2003. Polyphenols and antioxidant capacity of vegetables under fresh and frozen conditions. J Agric Food Chem 51(8) 2222-2226. 

Ninfali P, Mea G, Giorgini S, Rocchi M and Bacchiocca M. 2005. Antioxidant capacity of vegetables, spices and dressings relevant to nutrition. Br J Nutr 93(2) 257-266. 

Pellegrini N, Colombi B, Salvatore S, Brenna, OV, Galavema G, Del Rio D, Bianchi M, Bennett RN and Brighenti F. 2007. Evaluation of antioxidant capacity of some fruit and vegetable foods efficiency of extraction of a sequence of solvents. J Sci Food Agric 87(1) 103—111. 

As has been explained in previous chapters, the antioxidant capacity of fruits and vegetables is a function of the amounts and types of phytochemicals that are present in the fresh tissues. However, the individual contribution to the total antioxidant capacity varies widely. Various studies have demonstrated that phenols and flavonoids contribute to a higher extent than ascorbic acid, carotenoids, and others to the antioxidant capacity of fmits and vegetables (Robles-Sanchez and others 2007). It has been observed that a given content of vitamin E in fruits contributes significantly more to the antioxidant capacity than the same content of ascorbic acid. 

Antioxidant capacity of fruits and vegetables depends on the total concentrations of phytochemicals, mainly ascorbic acid, phenolic compounds (including flavonoids), and carotenoids. However, as previously stated, the individual contribution of each compound to the total antioxidant capacity varies widely and is difficult to quantify in a whole food product. 

Because fruits and vegetables are the major antioxidant sources in the daily diet of humans, we calculated estimated dally antioxidant capacity intake from these foods. 

Huang, Z., Wang, B., Eaves, D. H., Shikany, J. M., Pace, R. D. (2007). Total phenolics and antioxidant capacity of indigenous vegetables in the southeast United States Alabama Collaboration for Cardiovascular Equality Project Int. J. Food Sci Nutr., 1-9. 

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