Narsing Rao Galla

Chemical, fatty acid, amino acid composition and antioxidant activity of dehydrated Momordica tuberosa Roxb. (Adavi Kakara ) was investigated. The dehydrated M. tuberosa  possessed 21.76% protein and 33.96% fibre. The total lipid of seed was rich in oleic (22.05%), linoleic (25.09%) and linolenic (6.17%) acids. Major amino acids of the seeds are glutamic acid, arginine, leucine, aspartic acid and alanine. The ratio of essential to nonessential amino acids was 0.57 and in which, essential amino acids contributed to an extent of  36.36 g/100 g seed proteins. Inhibition of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical at 50% was higher with pulp (6 mg) than whole fruit (14 mg) and seeds (20 mg). The ABTS radical inhibition assay was found to be high in whole fruit (98.4%) and followed by pulp (50.76%) and seed (16.14%) at 2 mg. Marginal differences in ferric ion reducing power were observed in all the samples at 10 mg level.

Sterculia foetida L. seed protein flour (SSPF) was produced by dehulling, defatting, drying, grinding, passing through mesh sieve 240 µ and evaluated its physico- chemical characteristics. The antioxidant activity increases with increasing in concentration of the SSPF. The total polyphenol content was determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. Amino acid composition by using Biochrom automatic amino acid analyzer and they were detected after post column derivatization with Ninhydrin reagent. The antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH and ferric reducing power methods and storage stability by sorption isotherm method. SSPF was possessed higher contents of protein (40.10%), calcium (58 mg) and phosphorus (1138 mg/100 g). Glutamic acid, arginine, aspartic acid, leucine, lysine, valine and phenylalanine are the major amino acids. The ratio of essential to nonessential amino acids was 0.45. All essential amino acids were higher than the reported amounts for 70 kg person (100 ± 5g SSPF) as per FAO/WHO/UNU requirements. The seed protein flour was rich in polyphenols, which showed considerable antioxidant activity. SDS-PAGE showed nine protein bands, in which five kDa proteins are matching with molecular marker. The antioxidant activity increases with increasing in concentration of the SSPF. The sorption isotherm studies indicated that the SSPF was non-hygroscopic in nature.

The objective of this study was to determine the phenolic content of the Sterculia foetida L. seeds methanol extract (SSME) and to evaluate the antioxidant activity of the extract. The Folin-ciocalteu procedure was used to assess the total phenolic content of the extracts as garlic acid equivalents. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, ferric reducing power and 2, 2-Azinobis-3-ethyl benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) diammonium salt methods. The seed methanol extract was yielded 9.5% crude material. The total polyphenol content was 14.32%. The antioxidant activity of extract was shown similar correlation between DPPH, ferric reducing power and ABTS.