Abstract
In order to identify pigmented corn with nutraceutical potential, the secondary metabolite content, the antioxidant capacity and antimutagenic activity of red, and blue corn were analyzed. The ranges of total phenolic, flavonoid and anthocyanin contents of the corn samples were from 69.4 to 212.8 mg gallic ac. equiv./100 g DW, 0.07 to 12.19 mg (+) catechin eq./100 g DW and 3.89 to 34.17 mg cyanidin-3-O-glucoside eq./100 g DW, respectively. The phenolic extracts demonstrated the highest antioxidant capacity evaluated by the ABTS assay displaying values from 2.06 to 7.34 mmol Trolox/100 g DW. None of the extracts was toxic to the tested bacteria strains TA98 and TA100. For TA98 tester strain, percentage inhibition values against AFB1 mutagenicity from 61 to 93, and 38 to 75 for flavonoid and anthocyanin extracts were obtained. The total phenol and anthocyanin contents correlate with the observed antioxidant capacity. The most biological active corn samples were the blue color while the least actives were the red ones. The results show that the studied blue corn samples are good sources of antioxidant and antimutagenic compounds, which could use to develop products that contribute to human health.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abdel-Aal ESM, Young JC, Rebalski I (2006) Anthocyanin composition in black, blue, pink, purple, and red cereal grains. J Agric Food Chem 54:4696–4704
Borges E, Ataide JP, Marinho TC, Couto M, Castro MM (2010) Multivariate QSAR study on the antimutagenic activity of flavonoids against 3-NFA on Salmonella typhimurium TA98. Eur J Med Chem 45:4562–4569
De la Parra C, Serna Saldivar SO, Hai Liu R (2007) Effect of processing on the phytochemical profiles and antioxidant activity of corn for production of masa, tortillas, and tortilla chips. J Agric Food Chem 55:4177–4183
Del Pozo-Insfran D, Brenes CH, Serna Saldivar SO, Talcott ST (2006) Polyphenolic and antioxidant content of white and blue corn (Zea mays L.) products. Food Res Int 39:696–703
Dewanto V, Wu X, Adom KK, Liu RH (2002) Thermal processing enhances the nutritional value of tomatoes by increasing total antioxidant activity. J Agric Food Chem 50:3010–3014
Edenharder R, Tang X (1997) Inhibition on the mutagenicity of 2-nitrofluorene, 3-nitrofluoranthene and 1-notropyrene by flavonoids, coumarins, quinones and other phenolic compounds. Food Chem Toxicol 35:357–372
Firuzi O, Lacanna A, Petrucci R, Marrosu G, Saso L (2005) Evaluation of the antioxidant activity of flavonoids by “ferric reducing antioxidant power” assay and cyclic voltammetry. Biochim Biophys 1721:174–184
Ghosh D, Konishi T (2007) Anthocyanins and anthocyanin-rich extracts: role in diabetes and eye function. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 16:200–208
Hagiwara A, Miyashita K, Nakanishi T, Sano M, Tamano S, Kadota T, Koda T, Nakamura M, Imaida K, Ito N, Shirai T (2001) Pronounced inhibition by a natural anthocyanin, purple corn color, of 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP)-associated colorectal carcinogenesis in male F344 rats pretreated with 1,2-dimethylhydrazine. Cancer Lett 171:17–25
Kado NY, Langley D, Eisenstadt E (1983) A simple modification of the Salmonella liquid-incubation assay. Increased sensitivity for detecting mutagens in human urine. Mutat Res 121:25–32
Lopez-Martinez LX, Oliart-Ros RM, Valerio-Alfaro G, Lee CH, Parkin KL, Garcia HS (2009) Antioxidant activity, phenolic compounds and anthocyanins content of eighteen strains of Mexican maize. LWT Food Sci Technol 42:1187–1192
Mendoza-Díaz S, Ortíz-Valerio Ma C, Castaño-Tostado E, Figueroa-Cárdenas JD, Reynoso-Camacho R, Ramos-Gómez M, Loarca-Piña G (2012) Antioxidant capacity and antimutagenic activity of anthocyanin and carotenoid extracts from nixtamalized pigmented creole maize races (Zea mays L.). Plant Food Hum Nutr 67:442–449
Mora-Rochín S, Gaxiola-Cuevas N, Gutiérrez-Uribe JA, Milán-Carrillo J, Milán-Noris EM, Reyes-Moreno C, Serna-Saldivar SO, Cuevas-Rodríguez EO (2016) Effect of traditional nixtamalization on anthocyanin content and profile in Mexican blue maize (Zea mays L.) landraces. LWT Food Sci Technol 68:563–569
Nabae K, Hayashi SM, Kawabe M, Ichihara T, Hagiwara A, Tamano S, Tsushima Y, Uchida K, Koda T, Nakamura M, Ogawa K, Shirai T (2008) A 90-day oral toxicity study of purple corn color, a natural food colorant, in F344 rats. Food Chem Toxicol 46:774–780
Nenadis N, Wang LF, Tsimidou M, Zhang HY (2004) Estimation of scavenging activity of phenolic compounds using the ABTS•+ assay. J Agric Food Chem 52:4669–4674
Pedreschi R, Cisneros-Zevallos L (2006) Antimutagenic and antioxidant properties of phenolic fractions from Andean purple corn (Zea mays L.). J Agric Food Chem 54:4557–4567
Pedreschi R, Cisneros-Zevallos L (2007) Phenolic profiles of Andean purple corn (Zea mays L.). Food Chem 100:956–963
Reynoso-Camacho R, Guerrero-Villanueva G, Figueroa J, Gallegos-Corona MA, Mendoza S, Loarca-Piña G, Ramos-Gomez M (2015) Anticarcinogenic effect of corn tortilla against 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH)-induced colon carcinogenesis in Sprague Dawley rats. Plant Food Hum Nutr 70:146–152
Shindo M, Kasai T, Abe A, Kondo Y (2007) Effects of dietary administration of plant-derived anthocyanin-rich colors to spontaneously hypertensive rats. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol 53:90–93
Sun J, Chu YF, Wu XZ, Liu RH (2002) Antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of vegetables. J Agric Food Chem 50:6910–6916
Trehan S, Singh N, Kaur A (2018) Characteristics of white, yellow, purple corn accessions: phenolic profile, textural, rheological properties and muffin making potential. J Food Sci Technol 55:2334–2343
Tsuda T (2008) Regulation of adipocyte function by anthocyanins; possibility of preventing the metabolic syndrome. J Agric Food Chem 56:642–646
Urias-Peraldí M, Gutiérrez-Uribe JA, Preciado-Ortiz RE, Cruz-Morales AS, Serna-Saldívar SO, García-Lara S (2013) Nutraceutical profiles of improved blue maize (Zea mays) hybrids for subtropical regions. Field Crops Res 141:69–76
Wold S, Sjöström M, Eriksson L (2001) PLS-regression: a basic tool of chemometrics. Chemometr Intell Lab Syst 58:109–130
Yang Z, Zhai W (2010) Identification and antioxidant activity of anthocyanins extracted from the seed and cob of purple corn (Zea mays L.). Innov Food Sci Emerg Technol 11:169–176
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT), projects GTO-04-C02-68 and P50596-Q. The authors thank CONACyT for a graduate fellowship to M. Neri.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Loarca-Piña, G., Neri, M., Figueroa, J.D. et al. Chemical characterization, antioxidant and antimutagenic evaluations of pigmented corn. J Food Sci Technol 56, 3177–3184 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-019-03671-3
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-019-03671-3