Phenols and antioxidant activity of apple, quince, pomegranate, bitter orange and almond-leaved pear methanolic extracts

Abstract

Fruits are valuable sources of natural phenolic antioxidants , which are known to have beneficial health promoting properties. Some rarely consumed fruits ( almondleaved pear) in the Greek province and peels processed to traditional homemade pastries (bitter orange, quince) as well as some wild types (wild pomegranate and wild pear) where investigated in relation to their phenol content and antioxidant activity potential of the methanolic extracts and compared to well known fruits (apple, pomegranate). Total phenols (TP) values of fruit flesh and peel where estimated by the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent after extraction with ethyl acetate and n-propanol in acid hydrolyzed and non hydrolyzed samples, while antioxidant activities values of methanolic extracts where estimated by the DPPH method. The obtained TP and antioxidant activity values where compared to the corresponding values of green apple, red apple and pomegranate.