Determination of free radical scavenging activity, phenolic and flavonoid content of seven corn cultivars from the Southwest Maluku District, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract. Sinay H, Mahulette F, Yáñez JA. 2022. Determination of free radical scavenging activity, phenolic and flavonoid content of seven corn cultivars from the Southwest Maluku District, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 23: 5974-5981. The variation of corn (Zea mays L.) kernel might be considered as a surrogate indicator of the phytochemical and bioactive content. This study aimed to determine the phenolics, flavonoids, and free radical scavenging activity of seven local corn cultivars from Kisar Island, Southwest Maluku District in Indonesia. Sample extraction was done by the maceration method. Flavonoid content was determined using the Dowd method, and total phenolic content was performed using the Folin-Ciocalteu method. Free radical scavenging activity was determined using the DPPH radical scavenging method. One-way ANOVA was performed with Duncan multiple range tests to assess the differences between corn seed cultivars, and p < 0.05 were regarded as statistically significant. The results show that the total flavonoid content varied from 8.463 mg QE/mg (Putih cultivar) to 40.075 mg QE/mg (Kuning Dalam cultivar). Total polyphenol content also varied between 105.63 mg GAE/mg (Merah Delima Tongkol Putih cultivar) and 136.41 mg GAE/mg (Pulut cultivar). The antioxidant activity by DPPH assay determined that the seven local corn cultivars had IC50 values ??that were similar to quercetin (used as control), some were even lower. The IC50 value of the seven local corn cultivars ranged from 5.56 to 16.96 µg/mL, while quercetin had an IC50 value of 11.97 µg/mL. It was observed that the Merah Delima Tongkol Cokelat, Merah Delima Tongkol Putih, and Putih cultivars had comparable antioxidant activity to the control quercetin. The Merah Darah, Kuning Genjah, and Kuning Dalam cultivars exhibited a statistically significant higher antioxidant capacity than quercetin. These results can contribute to the selection of corn cultivars to harvest for commercial purposes and potential nutraceutical applications.