Phenolic compound and antioxidant activity in pomegranate juices and colored quinoa

Natural phenolic compounds from some fruits, herbs or plants play an important role in increasing body’s protecting. These compounds includes phenolic acids, flavonoids, tannins and others. High amount of total phenolics, flavonoids and flavanols play a vital role in adsorption and neutralization of free radicals, reducing singlet and triplet oxygen or decaying peroxides. In this research phenolic compounds and antoxidant activities in pomegranate juice and colored quinoa have been studied. Among various pomegranate cultivars, the majore antioxidant activity of pomegranate juice was attributed to punicalagin, contained in the skin of fruit and also ellagic acid derivatives and hydrolysable tannins. Quinoa is a traditional grain crop. Results indicate a very high antioxidant capacity for the pigmented quinoa. The presence of betalains is correlated with high antioxidant and free radical scavenging. All violet, red and yellow quinoa grains extracts show remarkable antioxidant activity in comparison with the white and black ones. The highest antioxidant activity is observed for the red-violet varieties containing both betacyanins and betaxanthins. A decrease in the concentration of the radical was observed in all samples but this was higher for the red-violet and yellow varieties. Generally, the polyphenol and anthocyanin content and then antioxidant activity are known to be influenced by genotype, growing region, climate and cultural practices.

Keywords:

Phenolic compounds , pomegranate juices , colored quinoa , free radicals scavenging