Chemical characterization, antioxidant and antimutagenic evaluations of pigmented corn.

Abstract

In order to identify pigmented corn with nutraceutical potential, the secondary metabolite content, the antioxidant capacity and antimutagenic activity of red, and blue corn were analyzed. The ranges of total phenolic, flavonoid and anthocyanin contents of the corn samples were from 69.4 to 212.8mg gallic ac. equiv./100g DW, 0.07 to 12.19mg (+) catechin eq./100g DW and 3.89 to 34.17mg cyanidin-3-O-glucoside eq./100g DW, respectively. The phenolic extracts demonstrated the highest antioxidant capacity evaluated by the ABTS assay displaying values from 2.06 to 7.34mmol Trolox/100g DW. None of the extracts was toxic to the tested bacteria strains TA98 and TA100. For TA98 tester strain, percentage inhibition values against AFB1 mutagenicity from 61 to 93, and 38 to 75 for flavonoid and anthocyanin extracts were obtained. The total phenol and anthocyanin contents correlate with the observed antioxidant capacity. The most biological active corn samples were the blue color while the least actives were the red ones. The results show that the studied blue corn samples are good sources of antioxidant and antimutagenic compounds, which could use to develop products that contribute to human health.