18E-17

D. V. BANGALORE, D. D. Scott, and W. G. McGlynn. Oklahoma Food and Agricultural Products Research and Technology Ctr., Oklahoma State Univ., 148 FAPC, Stillwater, OK 74078-6055

Lycopene, a lipophilic antioxidant, has a crucial role in biological systems as an anti-cancer agent, lowering cardiovascular risks and in regulating the immune system. Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) as an index for antioxidant activity has been validated extensively for hydrophilic antioxidants, but its applicability to lycopene was only recently validated with the incorporation of β-cyclodextrin, a water solubility enhancer in our earlier studies. The present study is an extension to the ORAC assay for different concentrations of lycopene in the presence of randomly methylated β-cyclodextrin (RMCD), a derivative of cyclodextrin with higher solubilizing power. Lyc-O-Mato^TM 6 % extract was used as a source of lycopene for our experiments. Lycopene was extracted by standard spectrophotometric assay procedure in the presence of RMCD at concentrations of 0, 0.4, & 0.8 % and the antioxidant activity of lycopene at different levels measured with the ORAC assay. Experiments were conducted in quadruplicates and statistical pooled correlations analyzed. Statistical analysis showed a very high correlation(R²=0.99) between ORAC and ascorbic acid concentrations. Lycopene concentration correlated poorly with ORAC (R²=0.27) in absence of both β-cyclodextrin and randomly RMCD. Correlations improved with increasing levels of RMCD (R²=0.8612 and 0.9693 for 0.4 and 0.8 % RMCD respectively). Further these correlations improved considerably relative to β-cyclodextrin in our earlier studies (R²=0.51 and 0.9 for 0.4 and 0.8 % β-cyclodextrin respectively) as higher correlations were accomplished at lower RMCD concentrations, thus demonstrating the greater solubilizing power of RMCD. Inclusion of RMCD in the ORAC assay improves correlation between ORAC and lycopene concentration compared to no added cyclodextrin or β-cyclodextrin alone, thus expanding the scope of the ORAC assay to better measure the antioxidant activity of this fat soluble antioxidant.

Session 18E, Nutraceutical & Functional Foods: General I
2:00 PM - 5:30 PM, Sunday PM Room Hall I-2

2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana