Effects of three drying methods on polyphenol composition and antioxidant activities of Litchi chinensis Sonn

Si Tan; Jianmin Tang; Wenjing Shi; Zhuwei Wang; Yuanyuan Xiang; Tingwei Deng; Xiaoxu Gao; Wenfeng Li; Shengyou Shi

doi:10.1007/s10068-019-00674-w

Effects of three drying methods on polyphenol composition and antioxidant activities of Litchi chinensis Sonn

Food Sci Biotechnol. 2019 Oct 5;29(3):351-358. doi: 10.1007/s10068-019-00674-w. eCollection 2020 Mar.

Authors

Si Tan¹, Jianmin Tang², Wenjing Shi³, Zhuwei Wang¹, Yuanyuan Xiang¹, Tingwei Deng¹, Xiaoxu Gao¹, Wenfeng Li¹, Shengyou Shi^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ 1School of Advanced Agriculture and Bioengineering, Yangtze Normal University, 408100 Chongqing, China.
² 2Chongqing Key Laboratory of Economic Plant Biotechnology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Special Plant Industry in Chongqing, Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Special Plant Seedling, College of Landscape Architecture and Life Science/Institute of Special Plants, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, 402160 China.
³ 3Fruit Research Institute, Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chongqing, 401329 China.
⁴ 4Institute of China Southern Subtropical Crop Research, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS), Key Laboratory of Tropical Fruit Biology, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangdong, 524091 China.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of three different drying methods, freeze drying (FD), vacuum drying (VD) and oven drying (OD) on phenolic contents and antioxidant activities of litchi fruits. 20 polyphenols were exactly identified in the litchi fruits by UPLC-QqQ/MS. Significant losses were observed in the contents of total polyphenols and antioxidant activities in the dried litchi when compared with the fresh litchi. Principle component analysis indicated that there was significant difference of phenolic component between the use of thermal drying (VD and OD) and FD. Our results suggest that FD is the optimum drying method for litchi fruits considering the content of total polyphenols and antioxidant activities.

Keywords: Antioxidant activity; Drying methods; Litchi chinensis Sonn.; Polyphenols.