TITLE:
Total Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Activity of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) as Affected by Soaking and Cooking Conditions
AUTHORS:
Aharon Segev, Hana Badani, Liel Galili, Ran Hovav, Yoram Kapulnik, Ilan Shomer, Shmuel Galili
KEYWORDS:
Colored Chickpea Seeds, FRAP, Processing, Total Phenolics, Total Flavonoids
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.2 No.7,
September
20,
2011
ABSTRACT: Chickpea lines with colored testa (seed coat) contain high levels of polyphenolic compounds that exhibit high levels of antioxidant activity. However, common processing procedures, such as soaking and cooking, may decrease the levels of these bioactive compounds and subsequent overall antioxidant activity. Here, the effects of soaking, cooking and steaming processes were examined in relation to total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and ferric reducing ability of plasma antioxidant activity (FRAP AA) of colored chickpea seeds. All processing steps significantly reduced TPC, TFC and FRAP AA in all of the tested chickpea seeds. Nevertheless, soaking the seeds at room temperature (for 22 h) resulted in a smaller decrease in TPC, TFC and FRAP AA than soaking at 60℃ (for 2 h). Moreover, steaming was superior to cooking in terms of conserving polyphenol and antioxidant activity. The observed reduction in TPC was mainly due to leaching of these compounds from the seed coat into the soaking or cooking water. Based on these results, we suggest that soaking at room temperature for 22 h followed by steaming for 1 h is the best method for retaining TPC, TFC and FRAP AA of colored chickpea.