Phenolic compounds and antioxidant activities of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) fruits

Abstract

Introduction Anatolia is one of the original centers of European chestnut production. Therefore, chestnut fruits were procured from four regions, 16 provinces in which chestnuts are grown in Turkey and examined in terms of phenolic content, antioxidant activity and some phenolic compounds. Objectives Chestnut has become increasingly important because of positive health effects. We aimed to determine whether chestnut is a natural antioxidant source and to learn the phenolic profiles of chestnuts of some provinces of Turkey. Methods Total phenolic contents, total antioxidant capacities and specific phenolic compounds of chestnuts were determined. Fifteen antioxidant standards were used in high-performance
liquid chromatography with diode-array etection for phenolic compounds’ analyses. Results The results show that the total phenolic contents varied between 5 mg GAE g-1 DM and 32.82 mg GAE g-1 DM. All chestnut samples had no significant differences statistically in terms of total antioxidant capacity. Among the specific phenolic analytes, myricetin, kaempferol, fumaric acid and quercetin were not found in any chestnut. In all chestnut samples, vanillic acid was determined in relatively high amounts. Conclusion It could be concluded that total phenolic contents and specific phenolic compounds varied between the provinces; the total antioxidant capacities were nearly the same statistically in Turkey.