Food provides not only essential nutrients required for life, but also bioactive compounds usefull to maintan good health and disease prevention. Abundant epidemiological evidences suggest that consumption of food rich in antioxi-dants (non-nutritional components) can prevent degenerative diseases. A total of 26 commonly consumed nuts, oil seeds, edible oils, milk and milk products were chosen for the study. Considering the fact that antioxidant content (AOC) and phenolic contents (PC) of these foods was not established systematically in Indian context. Therefore, we have assessed and correlated the AOC and PC, an important antioxidant constituents of plant foods. AOC was assessed by DPPH (2, 2-Diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl) scavenging activity and FRAP (Ferric reducing antioxidant power) methods and phenolic content (PC), using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. Among the nuts and oil seeds arecanut had the highest phenolic and antioxidant content 10841, 4220341 mg/100g respectively. In milk, edible oils and sugars the values ranged from 336 -11674 mg/100g. Jaggery had the highest PC and AOC among the foods studied . Although AOC and PC showed wide variation among the foods, AOC was correlated significantly with PC. Indeed the ‘r’ value between PC and AOC (DPPH and FRAP) was 0.99 (p < 0.01) among the nuts and oil seeds, while in milk, milk products and sugars, the “r” values ranged from 0.93 and 0.99 (p < 0.01) respectively. The overall results indicate that the phenolic compounds may be significant contributors to the AOC of the foods studied.
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