Antioxidative effect of polyphenols present in corn (Zea mays L.)

Department of Home Science, University of Calcutta, 20B, Judges Court Road, Kolkata-700 027, India

3Department of Chemical Technology, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road,
Kolkata-700 009, India
E-mail : santinathghosh@yahoo.com.hk Fax: 91-033-23519755

Manuscript received 22 June 2006, revised 28 July 2006, accepted 25 August 2006

The polyphenol content in baby corn as well as in mature corn and their \(in\) \(vitro\) antioxidant activity have been studied. Mature corn and baby corn when extracted with 80% methanol, contained about 0. 79 and 0.35 g polyphenol per 100 g (as gallic acid equivalent) dry matter respectively. Both the polyphenols have shown strong reducing activity, hydroxy radical scavenging activity, lipid oxidation inhibiting activity and prolonged ABTS^•+ radical cation scavenging activity. This observation will be beneficial in application of the corn extracts in txtended product self life. The result of the study indicates that corn is rich in active polyphenolic antioxidants, which are very much important from nutritional point of view.