CARROT LEAVES: ANTIOXIDATIVE AND NUTRITIVE VALUES

Abstract

This study was carried out for chemical assess of yellow carrot leaves and possibility to use its methanol and acetone extracts as a new source of natural antioxidants instead of artificial antioxidants due to its negative effect on human health. So, chemical composition of carrot leaves were estimated, as well as methanol and acetone extracts content of phenolic compounds using liquid chromatography and also, antioxidant activity of both extracts were studied prior to the sunflower oil stored in opened bottles stored at 63°C as an oxidation accelerated conditions for 60 days using acid number, peroxide value, antioxidant effectiveness and thiobarbituric acid value changes. Obtained results showed that carrot leaves could be considered as a source of carbohydrates and protein, which represented 61.36% and 20.27% (dry weight), respectively. Also, it was a good source of some minerals such as potassium (975.00 ppm). It was observed that extraction efficiency of methanol was higher than acetone where, it contained 82.07 mg/ml total phenols as galic acids. Both of two extracts had antioxidant effect. It was found that there were no significant differences between control treatment and all treatment up to 45 days of storage and the best antioxidant effectiveness was observed for D treatment (0.15% acetone extract) compared with other treatments. The results also showed that thiobarbituric acid values did not show significant differences between all treatments up to 30 days of storage and it ranged between 0.515 to 0.788 mg malonaldehyde/kg oil. Therefore, it was recommended to use carrot leaves as a new source of natural antioxidants, as well as source of some minerals to fortify some food products.