Bioscience Methods 2015, Vol.6, No.2, 1-7
3
antioxidants in diseases associated with aging (Rahman
et al., 2007)
In the present study, the anti-oxidant activity and
phenolic content of different vegetables that are grown
in India and consumed in the Indian diet will be
evaluated.
Therefore main objectives of present study
are to determine total phenolic content and anti-oxidant
activity of fourteen vegetables and correlate the
phenolic content and antioxidant activity of these
vegetables.
2 Results and Discussion
2.1 Total phenolics
The results of phenol analysis of 14 commonly
consumed vegetables in India are given in Tables 1, 2
and 3, respectively. Total phenolic content of the
vegetables varied from 54.4 mg catechol/100 g fresh
weight in
Chenopodium album
to 34 mg catechol/100
g fresh weight in
Raphanus sativus
. Considering a
large variation in the total phenolics, the vegetables
were divided into three groups namely high (>40 mg
catechol/100 g), medium (30-40 mg catechol/100 g)
and low (<30 mg catechol/100 g).
Table 1 Vegetables of high antioxidant activity and high total
phnolic content
Vegetables
Antioxidant
Total phenolics
Chenopodium album
70.8
63.47 mg/100 gm
Beta vulgaris
66.2
53.43 mg/100 gm
Brassica juncea
63.5
50.1 mg/100 gm
Pisum sativum
61.2
47.33 mg/100 gm
Brassica oleracea
60.5
43.72 mg/100 gm
Table 2 Vegetables of medium antioxidant activity and total
phenolic content
Vegetables
Antioxidant
Total phenolics
Daucus carota
58.40
46.49 mg/100 gm
Allium sativum
55.90
45.5 mg/100 gm
Brassica rapa
52.62
43.7 mg/100 gm
Phaseolus vulgarlis
51.57
42.6 mg/100 gm
Allium cepa
50.70
37.50 mg/100 gm
Chenopodium album
,
Beta vulgaris
,
Brassica juncea
,
pea pods,
Brassica oleracea
had the highest fresh
weight concentration of total phenols followed by
carrot leaves,
Brassica rapa
s, French beans,
Allium
cepa
, and
Allium sativum
. As
Beta vulgaris
is a rich
source of the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin; also a
Table 3 Vegetables of low antioxidant activity and total phenolic
content
Vegetables
Antioxidant
Total phenolics
Capsicum anunum
43.39
41.91 mg/100 gm
Cucumis sativus
41.50
35.53 mg/100 gm
Brassica oleracea
38.10
33.45 mg/100 gm
Raphanus sativus
25.78
33.03 mg/100 gm
good beta carotene and vitamin C source. In one
study, eating a lot of
Beta vulgaris
or collard greens
was associated with reduced risk of the leading cause
of blindness over 65 (Bayani et al., 2009).
Cruciferous vegetable
Brassica juncea
green
is rich in
dithiolthiones, isothiocyanates, the carotenoids lutein
and zeaxanthin, some beta carotene, flavonoids and
organosulfides. They also contain glucarates, coumarins
and other phenolic acids, terpenes and vitamin C
(Emerit et al., 2004).
Brassica oleracea
is having Indoles, dithiolthiones,
isothiocyanates, flavonoids, organosulfides, glucarates,
coumarins and other phenolic acids, terpenes, selenium
and vitamin C and
Pisum sativum
are the Modest
source of carotenoids; dietary fiber. Due to the present
of these anti-oxidant compounds, they are having high
anti-oxidant activity and high phenolic contents
(Bayani et al., 2009).
A large variation in the anti-oxidant activities, ranging
from as high as 70.8% in
Chenopodium album
to low
as 25.7% in
Raphanus sativus
, was observed. List of
vegetables which are having medium anti-oxidant
activity and phenolic contents are categorized in Table
2. These vegetables are
Brassica rapa
;
Daucus
carotaAllium cepa
,
Allium sativum
, French beans.
Anti-oxidant activity measured by bleaching of
linoleic acid-carotene emulsion for high anti-oxidant
activity group in Figure 2, for medium anti-oxidant
activity group in Figure 3 and for low anti-oxidant
activity group in Figure 4).
2.2 Relationship between phenolic content and
anti-oxidant activity
The relationship between total phenolic content and
anti-oxidant activity of vegetables is shown in Figure
5. Recently (Patricia et al., 2008) and (Ravi et al.,
2006) have demonstrated a linear relationship between
anti-oxidant capacity and total phenolics in Rubus sp.
However, (Saffa et al., 2010) could not find any corr-
