Total Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant Activity of Organic Vegetables Consumed in Brazil

Abstract

Organic olericulture differs from conventional agriculture due to the absence of pesticide, synthetic fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, some food additives and ionizing radiation, producing vegetables with a different chemical composition and with different amounts of bioactive compounds. The objective of this study was to quantify, in organic vegetables consumed in Brazil, the amount of total phenolic compounds using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and the antioxidant activity through DPPH method. Among the analyzed vegetables, the effectiveness in the antioxidant capacity was obtained in decreasing order, by the broccoli (69.35), kale (63.20), cabbage (35.72) and carrot (20.39), expressed in % of DPPH consumption after 30 minutes of reaction. The amount of total phenolic compounds (mg GAE/ml of fluid extract-FE) present in the kale (0.606), broccoli (0.511), cabbage (0.214) and carrots (0.124) demonstrates a positive correlation between phenolic amounts and the antioxidant activity of the vegetables analyzed.