Abstract
Head cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) is a cruciferous leafy vegetable consumed commonly in China. It has been suggested that diets rich in cabbages play an important role in disease prevention. The phytochemicals as well as antioxidant activity of four typical varieties of head cabbages in China were systematically investigated. Sinapic acid was the most abundant phenolic acid in all samples followed by iso-ferulic acid. Most phenolic acids in red head cabbage were significantly higher than in other head cabbages. The 5-CH3-H4 folate contents in all samples were much higher than folate. Conical head cabbage contained the highest amount of folic acids while red head cabbage had the lowest. Cyanidin was the only anthocyanidins found in red head cabbage with the content of 44.52 mg 100 g− 1 fresh weight (fw). Total isothiocyanates in flat head cabbage was significantly higher than other head cabbages. Red head cabbage had the significant the highest level of total phenolics and flavonoids with the values of 153.94 mg gallic acid equivalents·100 g− 1 and 51.32 mg rutin equivalents·100 g− 1, respectively, while flat head cabbage had the lowest level. Red head cabbage exhibited the highest antioxidant activity as measured by 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) and 2, 2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS) radical scavenging and ferric ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays with the values of 69.82, 87.23% and 0.53, respectively. The study suggests that different varieties of head cabbages have different nutritional advantages, and provides useful information to recommend the right head cabbages for consumers.Graphical abstract
Highlights
Cabbages have proven to be beneficial for health by numerous epidemiological and clinical studies (Podsędek 2007; Cartea and Velasco 2008)
Among the varieties of head cabbages, red head cabbage had the highest contents of phenolic acids, anthocyanins, total phenolics and flavonoids, as well as the highest antioxidant activity; conical head cabbage
* Correspondence: lyjaas@163.com 2Institute of food safety and nutrition, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhongling Street 50, Nanjing 210014, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article contained the highest amount of folic acids; flat head cabbage had the highest level of total isothiocyanates from precursor compounds
Summary
Cabbages have proven to be beneficial for health by numerous epidemiological and clinical studies (Podsędek 2007; Cartea and Velasco 2008). The presence of vitamins, provitamins, such as folic acids, and a wide variety of phenolic substances and organosulfur compounds are considered to be contributory factors (Khanam et al 2012; Cartea and Velasco 2008). Phenolic substances are correlated with the antioxidant activity in many studies (Leja et al 2010), cabbages have proved to. There are many reports about the phenolic substances and antioxidant activity of cabbage, many of them have focused on the Chinese cabbage or the red cabbage (Ahmadiani et al 2014). Mizgier et al (2016) reported the characterization of phenolic compounds and antioxidant properties of red cabbage. Leja et al (2010) found phenolic compounds as the major antioxidant in red cabbage. The systematic analysis of phytochemicals in cabbages and the comparisons between the different cabbage varieties were limited
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