Habtamu Fekadu Gemede
Wollega University, Ethiopia
Title: Antioxidant properties of ethiopian underutilised okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) pod and seed accessions
Biography
Biography: Habtamu Fekadu Gemede
Abstract
Eight okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) pod and seed accessions were evaluated for their antioxidant activities, total phenolics and total flavonoids content in order to find the possible sources of natural antioxidants. DDPH scavenging, reducing power, metal chelating and ABTS scavenging were performed to evaluate antioxidant activity. The results were compared with different synthetic antioxidants. The antioxidant levels of the pod and seed accessions increased with increasing concentration of the samples and were dependent on the extract concentration. The EC50 values (mg/ml) of the pods and seeds of okra accession had respective ranges of DDPH scavenging 2.10-10.30 and 3.1->12; for reducing power were 1.20-4.20 and 1.18-4.30; for metal chelating were 0.50-1.52 and 0.32-1.11; for ABTS scavenging were 0.31-1.33 and 0.07-1.5. Okra pod and seed accessions had respective range of total phenol (mg GAE/g) 28.10-95.21 and 21.28-57.34; and for total flavonoid (mg CE/g) were 8.18-18.72 and 10.73-29.04. The study revealed that antioxidant activity, total phenolics and total flavonoid levels varied widely across pod and seed accessions, indicating their promising potential as a sources of natural antioxidants. Particularly, both okra pod and seed accession OPA#6 is a potential rich source of natural antioxidants than the rest of each accessions; that could be probably used in food preparations replacing synthetic antioxidants. Further studies are recommended to identify and quantify the available antioxidants.