Studies on quality characteristics of sesame and sunflower oil and their seed cake
Abstract
Antioxidant compounds in food play an important role as a health protecting factor. Scientific evidence
suggests that antioxidants reduce the risk for chronic diseases including cancer and heart disease. The
main characteristic of an antioxidant is its ability to trap free radicals. These free radicals may oxidize
nucleic acids, proteins, lipids or DNA and can initiate degenerative disease. In the present studies, two
varieties HT-1 HT-2 of Sesame and hybrid HSFH-848 of Sunflower were studies for oil content and
their physical and chemical characteristics, phenolic extracts of the oil and methanolic extract of the
defatted seed cake and antioxidant activity of their extracts by DPPH method. It was found that
phenolic extract of the oils as well as the methanolic extract of the defatted seed cake showed high
antioxidant activity. The methanolic extract of the seed cake of hybrid HSFH-848 showed highest
antioxidant activity and may be used as antioxidant in food, feed as well as in functional foods.
Description
Keywords
Sesamum indicum, Helianthus annus, Phenols, Flavonoids, Tocopherol, Carotenoids, Antioxidant activity