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Acai Extract Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Capacity
Author(s) -
Finn Amy Marie,
Wilson Ted
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.lb406
Subject(s) - tbars , chemistry , gallic acid , antioxidant , food science , thiobarbituric acid , biochemistry , lipid peroxidation
Acai is a dark blue tropical berry that is rich in phenolics and has antioxidant properties, with potential human health benefits. Acai is often consumed in the form of pill supplements that presumably reflect the properties of the original fruit. This study compared the phenolic content and antioxidant activity of five different commercially available products: Acai RX, Watts Power, Fruitrients X, NOW, and Solaray. Extract solutions were prepared by dissolving 200 mg of each pill in water, phenolic concentration was expressed as Gallic acid equivalents (GAE) at 34.5 ± 4.06, 52.26 ± 0.70, 70.2 ± 0.95, 938 ± 0.80, and 30.0 ± 1.04 mg GAE/ml respectively. Ability of 1:100 dilutions of extracts to inhibit Cu++‐mediated oxidation of low density lipoprotein was evaluated with a TBARS assay after a 90 min incubation. TBARS in the absence of acai was 0.05 ± 0.01, and TBARS in the presence of acai (1:10) was 0.29 ± 0.01, 0.40 ± 0.01, 0.48 ± 0.01, 0.03 ± 0.01, and 0.21 ± 0.01 ng MDA/ml respectively. LDL oxidized in the absence of acai had a 33.46 minute lag‐time (A 234 nm), lag‐times were 77‐, 77‐, 65‐, 180‐ and 74.35‐minutes, in the presence of a 1:10 dilution of these acai extracts respectively. R‐squared values for lag‐time verse TBARS, lag‐time verse GAE, and TBARS vs. GAE and were 0.91, 0.75 and 0.95 respectively. The potential health benefits of commercially available acai supplements are probably related to the phenolic content.