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Publications in Scientific Journals:

G. Kroyer:
"Nutritional bioactive and antioxidant properties of selected fruit seeds";
Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism, 51, S1 (2007), 156.



English abstract:
Nutritional bioactive and antioxidant properties of selected fruit seeds

G. T. KROYER
Department of Natural Products and Food Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Engineering, University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9, A-1060 Vienna, Austria


There is a growing interest in the food industry and in preventive health care in the evaluation of natural nutritives with antioxidant properties. Consumption of a diet rich in antioxidant active polyphenol compounds has been linked with a reduced risk for cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer. The objective of this study was to quantify the total polyphenol compounds and to evaluate the antioxidant and free radical scavenging properties of seed extracts of pomegranate, papaya and melon.
The ground seeds were dried and extracted with 80% ethanol in water. The obtained solid extracts were analyzed for their content of total polyphenols (Folin-Ciocalteu method). The antioxidant activities were determined with the DPPH* radical scavenging method in terms of their Efficient Concentration EC50 (mg antioxidant /mg DPPH*).
All the seed extracts showed remarkable amounts of total polyphenols and considerable free radical scavenging activity (EC50). Comparatively, the amount of total polyphenols (mg/g) in the seed extracts decreased in the order papaya (20,9) > pomegranate (9,9) > melon (3,5). Correlating with the polyphenol content, the extract of papaya seeds proved to have the highest antioxidant properties (EC50: 6,2), followed by the pomegranate seed extract (EC50: 10,1), whilst the extract of melon seeds showed only relatively poor inhibitory effectiveness (EC50: 28,4).
The results indicate that fruit seed extracts, above all papaya seed extracts, have remarkable antioxidant properties in correlation with their total polyphenol content. An application as functional natural antioxidant food additive and as health promoting dietary supplement seems to be worth considering.

Keywords:
fruit seeds, antioxidant activity, polyphenols, food additive, dietary supplement


Electronic version of the publication:
http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/pub-tch_7907.doc


Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.