Abstract

The colored corns are used as food as well as for feed in Asian countries; however, the active component of antioxidant activity in Korean colored corns has not been investigated. Thus, we measured the total content of carotenoids, phenols, flavonoids, and anthocyanins from 40 Korean colored corn genotypes for correlation analysis between antioxidant activity and these phytochemicals. The ferric reducing ability power (FRAP) and 2,2'-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS) activity were measured in order to study this correlation. As a result, there was large variation in total anthocyanin (coefficient of variation, CV 85.0%) and total carotenoid contents (CV 87.8%), while CVs of total phenol, total flavonoid contents, ABTS and FRAP was relatively low (CV 15.0%, 22.8%, 15.5%, and 16.3% respectively). There were meaningful correlations between ABTS and anthocyanins, phenols, and flavonoids, as well as correlations between FRAP and phenols as well as FRAP and flavonoids. We also obtained a more informative and easily visualized result by using principal component analysis (PCA). Anthocyanins and carotenoids showed a large variation as compared to other compounds. Anthocyanins are a good target to increase antioxidant activity in colored corns.

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