Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXVII, Issue 2
Written by Andrei Constantin Ioan ARLET, Mihaela TOCIU, Brînduşa BALANUCA, Florentina ISRAEL-ROMING
Red and purple corn varieties were well studied in terms of their profile of biological active compounds, trying to explore the great potential of agricultural resources in different advanced applications, in food, pharmaceutic or medical fields. In this research paper, Bloody Butcher red corn variety was studied related to its total phenolics content and antioxidant activity. The research was conducted with milled corn and sifted milled corn, analyzing the use of several solvents for the extraction experiments and different methods (magnetic stirring, ultrasound, microwaves). Water-ethanol (1/1) was found to be the optimal extraction solvent mixture and ultrasound treatment was chosen as the best method to obtain extracts with high polyphenolic content (290 mg GAE/100 g DM). Microwave assisted extraction lead to similar results at 700W power level and 20 seconds exposure. Also, the highest antioxidant activity resulted for sifted milled corn after 60 minutes of magnetic stirring extraction with aqueous-ethanol solvent (451.71 mM TE/100 g DM).
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