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Antioxidant Properties of Native Mexican Foods : Chocolate, Vanilla and Nopal
Author(s) -
Hernandez Monroy Blanca Mar,
Tovar Armando,
Torres Nimbe
Publication year - 2015
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.29.1_supplement.924.13
Subject(s) - food science , chemistry , antioxidant , polyphenol , vitamin c , orange juice , population , biochemistry , medicine , environmental health
The antioxidant properties of Mexican traditional foods may contribute to reduce diseases caused by an increase in free radicals and reactive species such as diabetes and obesity in Mexican population.The purpose of this study was to investigate the properties of chocolate, vanilla and nopal. Antioxidant activity, reactive species and polyphenolic content were measured by fluorometric and spectrophotometric assays. Content of vitamin C was measured by titration and antioxidant activity in vivo of vanilla was measured in plasma of healthy subjects. The results demonstrated that vanilla, nopal and handmade Mexican chocolate have higher antioxidant activity than German, Swiss chocolate and blackberry. Mexican chocolate scavenges with higher affinity OH . > O2 .‐ > ONOO‐ > HOCl, whereas, vanilla is a better scavenger of H 2 O 2 > OH . > HOCl. Nopal contains approximately 280 mg of vitamin C/100 g of serving, higher than guavas and orange juice, however the content of Vitamin C as well as polyphenolic content decreases as the cooking time increases. Interestingly steamed nopal contains more polyphenols than raw nopal. Finally antioxidant activity in vanilla is transferred to the human plasma after 1 hour of consumption. Thus, these results suggest that the consumption of Mexican traditional foods can help to maintain the equilibrium between reactive species formation and the antioxidant capacity produced by the consumption of foods rich in antioxidants.