A novel, micro, rapid and direct assay to assess total antioxidant capacity of solid foods

•Direct and rapid assay to assess total antioxidant capacity of solid foods.•The time-consuming dilution step is omitted by using of micro-amount of solid foods.•Micro-amount of solid food is estimated by a Bradford reagent-based chemical predictor.•Total antioxidant capacity is expressed using a theoretical and stoichiometric parameter.

A novel, micro, rapid and direct procedure to measure the total antioxidant capacity of solid foods using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (mR-QUENCHER-DPPH) was developed and validated. The mR-QUENCHER-DPPH assay was performed in semi-aqueous medium (methanol–Tris buffer) using very small sample amounts (below 3.6 µg), as estimated by a Bradford reagent-based chemical predictor, and it was completed in 10 min at room temperature. The total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of solid foods was expressed as scavenging capacity index (SCI, mmol DPPH scavenged per kg sample), a theoretical and stoichiometric parameter deduced in this study. SCI values measured by mR-QUENCHER-DPPH assay for cereals cous-cous (7.20±0.35), amaranth (7.99±0.35) and buckwheat (194.2±6.72); Goji fruit (91.27±3.98); lotus root (2402±168); and spices turmeric (3767±355), ginger (2493±283), and cinnamon (10461±2133) were further validated using Folin–Ciocalteau assay. Bland–Altman analysis showed that there were not statistically significant differences in TAC values as measured by both assays. In the same way, TAC values measured by mR-QUENCHER-DPPH were correlated with free (r=0.8088, P=0.0151), bound (r=0.9668, P<0.0001) and total (r=0.9067, P=0.0019) reducing capacity of extracts from solid foods as assessed by Folin–Ciocalteau assay. The mR-QUENCHER-DPPH assay allows to measure TAC values using micro-gram amounts in solid food samples with a wide content range of antioxidants (low, high and very high), and omitting the time-consuming dilution cellulose-step commonly employed in the traditional QUENCHER procedures.

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