Phenolics and antioxidant activity of freeze-dried sour cherry puree with addition of disaccharides

• Freeze-dried sour cherry puree (FCHP) with addition of sugars was investigated.
• The highest anthocyanin content had FCHP with addition of maltose and trehalose.
• Positive effect of sugars was most pronounced for cyanidin-3-glucosylrutinosid.
• The sum of individual anthocyanins was a good predictor of antioxidant properties.
• The highest antioxidant activity had FCHP with an addition of 20% of maltose.

This study was carried out to determine the influence of disaccharides on phenolics and antioxidant activity of freeze-dried sour cherry puree. The freeze-dried sour cherry purees were prepared without and with addition of maltose, sucrose or trehalose in amounts of 5, 10 or 20%. Addition of maltose and trehalose had a positive effect on preservation of anthocyanins, especially on cyanidin-3-glucosylrutinosid. Positive effect of sugars was the most pronounced for cyanidin-3-glucosylrutinosid and the least for cyanidin-3-glucoside. The highest content of individual anthocyanins except cyanidin-3-glucoside was measured in sample with addition of 20% of maltose. Results of antioxidant activity (AA) measured with ABTS and FRAP followed the same trends with a positive correlation of r = 0.824. Antioxidant activity measured with ABTS also showed the positive correlation with total phenolics, flavonoids and with sum of individual anthocyanins (r = 0.745, 0.709 and 0.814, respectively). The AA measured with all three methods (DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP) showed that sample with addition of 20% of maltose had the highest AA, 65.46, 28.45, 62.24 mg GAE/100 g, respectively.