Antioxidant Activity of Some Whole Fruit Cultivars of Raw and Processed (Boiled) Egg Plant (Solanum melongena)

Abstract

Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is one of the most common vegetables consumed all around the world. It is a very rich source of polyphenol compounds endowed with antioxidant activity. The current study evaluated the antioxidant potential of seven different varieties of eggplant carried out both in raw and processed form in terms of total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and DPPH radical scavenging assay. The phenolic and flavonoid content were quantified by aluminum chloride and Folin-Ciocalteu methods, respectively. Processed extract from yellow eggplant showed more antioxidant activity (52.35 ± 0.75%), while raw extract from purple stripe eggplant showed more antioxidant activity than the other samples (83.00 ± 0.20%). It was also observed that values for all samples carried out  for total phenolic and total flavonoid content  both raw and processed extract was low which ranges from (7.65 ± 0.02 µg/g to 7.89 ± 0.04 µg/g) for raw extract and (7.60 ± 0.08 µg/g to 7.82 ± 0.24 µg/g) for processed extract in total phenolics and ( 62.09 ± 0.08 µg/g to 62.43 ± 0.05 µg/g) for raw extract and (62.43 ± 0.05µg/g to 62.56 ± 0.05 µg/g) for processed extract in total flavonoid, compared to values for DPPH, which ranges from (25.07 ± 0.47% to 83.00 ± 0.20%) for raw extract and (36.60 ± 0.19% to 57.03 ± 0.50%) for processed extract.