Antioxidant Capacity and Phenolic Content of Spinach As Affected by Genetics and Maturation

Spinach leaves harvested at three maturity stages from eight commercial cultivars (CC) and eight advanced breeding lines (ABL) were evaluated for oxygen radical absorbing capacity (ORAC), total phenolics, and flavonoid composition and content. ABL had higher levels of total phenolics, total flavonoi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of agricultural and food chemistry 2005-11, Vol.53 (22), p.8618-8623
Main Authors: Pandjaitan, N, Howard, L. R, Morelock, T, Gil, M. I
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
advanced breeding lines
antioxidant activity
antioxidants
Antioxidants - analysis
Biological and medical sciences
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
cultivars
flavonoids
Flavonoids - analysis
food composition
Food industries
Free Radical Scavengers - analysis
Fruit and vegetable industries
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genotype
harvest date
lines
maturity stage
phenolic compounds
Phenols - analysis
plant age
Plant Leaves - chemistry
Plant Leaves - genetics
Plant Leaves - growth & development
Reactive Oxygen Species
spinach
Spinacia oleracea
Spinacia oleracea - chemistry
Spinacia oleracea - genetics
Spinacia oleracea - growth & development
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Summary:Spinach leaves harvested at three maturity stages from eight commercial cultivars (CC) and eight advanced breeding lines (ABL) were evaluated for oxygen radical absorbing capacity (ORAC), total phenolics, and flavonoid composition and content. ABL had higher levels of total phenolics, total flavonoids, and ORAC than CC. Midmaturity spinach leaves had higher levels of total phenolics, total flavonoids, and antioxidant capacity than immature and mature leaves. The contents of individual flavonoids varied in response to maturation, with the predominant glucuronated flavones decreasing and patuletin and spinacetin derivatives increasing. Both total phenolics and total flavonoids correlated well with ORAC (rxy = 0.78 and 0.81, respectively) demonstrating that flavonoids were major contributors to antioxidant capacity. Our results indicate that spinach genotypes should be harvested at the midmaturity stage for consumers to benefit from elevated levels of health promoting flavonoids present in the leaves. Additionally, plant breeders can select for increased phenolic content to increase antioxidant capacity of spinach genotypes. Keywords: Antioxidant capacity; flavonoids; genotype; maturity; spinach
ISSN:0021-8561
1520-5118
DOI:10.1021/jf052077i