Antioxidant capacity of fruits and vegetables cultivated in Chile Capacidad antioxidante de frutas y verduras cultivados en Chile

Abstract

The high prevalence of non transmissible chronic diseases (NCD) related to food consumption had increased the studies conducted to investigate the relationship between diet and health. A smaller incidence of NCD, with food patterns with high consumption of fruits and vegetables has been observed and chemical compounds of these foods have been one of the main subjects of the actual research in the reaqltion between food consumption and health. The effect of vegetable foods has been attributed to various nutrients and bioactive compounds with antioxidant activity. In order to determine the antioxidant capacity of vegetable foods cultivated in Chile, natural fruits and vegetables were analyzed according to the FRAP (ferric reducing activity power) method, reading to the 4 minutes. In vegetables, the values were between 0.002 and 1.91 milimoles of Fe/100g for cooked carrot and red pepper respectively. The values of the fruits ranged between 0.02 milimoles of Fe/100g for the cucumber and 12