Hydroxycinnamicacid derivatives: potential antioxidants in rare grown Allium species from Serbia

Abstract

The modern lifestyle imposes the need to discover and introduce foodstuffs that have nutritional and medicinal value into the food chain. The genus Allium includes a great number of species. The most studied species are onion, garlic and leek, for which there is evidence of beneficial effects on human health. Investigation of other, rare grown species of this genus, offers the possibility of expanding the range of food to vegetable species with potentially enriched chemical composition. Bearing in mind that the antioxidant properties of food are an important parameterofits quality, this paper aimed to examine the content of hydroxycinnamic derivatives (HCAs), as natural antioxidants, in two Allium species - A. schoenoprasum (chives) and A. nutans (blue chives), grown under different foliar application of selenium - Se (0, 10, 20, 30 g per ha). The total HCAs content was determined by spectrophotometric method, measured the absorbance at 525 nm. The obtained results are expressed as mg equivalent of chlorogenic acid (CGAE) per g of fresh weight. HCAs was in range 0.18 to 0.39 mg/g CGAE for A. schoenoprasum, and from 0.18 to 0.94 mg/g CGAE for A. nutans.