%0 Journal Article
%T Antioxidant and Free Radical Scavenging Abilities of some Indigenous Nigerian Drinks
%A HA Oboh
%A EO Okhai
%J Nigerian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences
%D 2012
%I 
%X Antioxidant contents of five local Nigerian drinks namely: ¡®Kunu¡¯, palmwine, plantain, soyabean and ¡®zobo¡¯ drinks were analyzed for flavonoids, phenols and vitamin C. The antioxidant scavenging abilities were evaluated using four invitro methods. ¡®Zobo¡¯ drink with sugar (Zs) had the highest phenolic contents (16.00 ¡À0.26mg/ml) while ¡®zobo¡¯ drink with ginger (ZG) recorded the highest flavonoids and vitamin C (3.91¡À0.02mg/ml and 2.31¡À0.01mg/ml) respectively. Local palm wine had the lowest phenols, flavonoids and vitamin C contents. (1.44¡À 0.00mg/ml, 0.10¡À0.04mg/ml and 0.29¡À0.02mg/ml respectively. ¡®Zobo¡¯ drink without sugar (ZNS) had the highest 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and the nitric oxide (NO) scavenging abilities of (70.18¡À0.65 % and 52.63¡À0.00%) respectively. ZG had the highest ferric reducing antioxidant property (FRAP), of 32.43¡À0.19 mgGAE/ml . A strong positive correlation exists between the total flavonoid, phenol and vitamin C content with their antioxidant capacities. Soybean was second to ¡®zobo¡¯ drinks in the scavenging of the DPPH radical and ferric reducing ability. ¡®Kunu¡¯ drinks had the lowest ability to mop up the DPPH radical (12.85¡À0.00 ), but a fair ability in the mopping up of the ABTS (0.32¡À0.001 ) and NO (21.05¡À7.44 ) radicals.. Plantain drink showed significantly (P¡Ü 0.05) lower levels of flavonoids and vitamin C in comparison to kunu drink.
%U http://www.ajol.info/index.php/njbas/article/view/81568