Antioxidant properties of apricot fruit and roasted kernel

ABSTRACT Thesis of Postgraduate Education ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF APRICOT FRUIT AND ROASTED KERNEL Gökhan Durmaz İnönü University Scientific Studies Institute Food Engineering Department 84+viii pages 2002 Supervisor; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Alpaslan In this thesis, antioxidant properties and total phenolic content of apricot kernels which roasted different times and apricot fruits including Şam and Paşa Mişmişi cultivars were investigated. Browning degree of roasted kernels was also determined spectrophotometrically. In this research, antioxidant properties of samples was determined by measuring DPPH radical scavenging power, p-carotene bleaching rate and reducing power. Total phenolic content was determined by Folin method. Peeled and defatted apricot kernels were heated in oven at 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes at 150 °C to obtain roasted samples. Fruit samples used as freeze-dried. Five concentrations was used for all analysis and compared. While the browning of the kernel samples increased almost linearly with the heating time, antioxidant properties however did not increase linearly but a maximum for the 10 minutes roasting for DPPH method, reducing power and total phenolic content. For beta-carotene bleaching method, it wasn't the case. In this method, the best results were obtained from raw apricot kernels. In fruit samples, Şam cultivar showed better results than Paşa Mişmişi in all experiments. KEY WORDS: Apricot, kernel, roasting, antioxidant activity