Abstract:

It could not be denied that both red corn anthocyanins and other phenolic compounds were shown to be great antioxidants, and some variation of their antioxidant power should be expected between diff erent studies. The DPPH assay was used to better understand why red corn showed relatively
high antioxidant activity compared to other fruits and vegetables. Red corn phenolics exhibited higher antioxidant capability and faster reaction kinetics than the same amount of blueberry phenolics, suggesting red corn phenolics to have a larger number of active hydroxyl groups and more favorable confi gurations to allow for better interactions with the free radicals. It has been observed in previous reports that antioxidant assays such as FRAP, DPPH, ABTS, and oxygen radical absorbance capacity exhibit a  high correlation with polyphenols content. Gardner et al also reported a high correlation between total polyphenols and antioxidant activity measured by FRAP. The study observed that there is a high correlation between the
antioxidant activity assays (DPPH, ABTS and FRAP) and the content of total polyphenols such as fl avonoids, phenolic acids, and anthocyanins, which indicates that these classes of bioactive compounds contribute the most to the antioxidant activity of Zea-phen®.