Dados do Trabalho

Título

EVALUATION OF PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF FERMENTED COFFEE BEANS

Introdução

Coffee is one of the most consumed drinks worldwide and the second most traded commodity. Studies demonstrate the health benefits of coffee in preventing degenerative and chronic diseases, attributed to the phytochemicals present in the bean. Post-harvest processing, including fermentation, can have a relevant impact on the nutritional and sensory characteristics of coffee. Therefore, the objective was to determine the content of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of fermented coffee beans.

Material e Métodos

Fermented cherry coffee beans (Café Arábica Catuaí red and yellow) were collected in the city of Piatã-Bahia. For the extracts, 5 g of dry grains were crushed and homogenized with 50 mL of hot water at 80 ºC for 5 min, filtered and the supernatant collected. The content of total phenolic compounds (TPC) was determined using the Folin-Ciocalteau and standard curve with gallic acid (EAG). The antioxidant capacity was determined by the radical capture methods ABTS (2,2'-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid ABTS●+) and DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl), the results were expressed as percentage of inhibition.

Resultados e Discussão

The TPC concentration was 7.55±0.22 and 4.14±0.15 mg EAG/g for the red and yellow fermented grains, respectively. Attributed to the influence of the fermentation process, since the yellow coffee beans were fermented with their skins, while the red coffee beans were fermented with pulped beans, factors that can interfere with the metabolism and production of phenolics. have lower TPC levels, which can also be observed in this study, as pulped coffee beans have superior quality and are intended for the production of specialty coffee. For their antioxidant capacity, both for capturing the DPPH and ABTS radicals, the fermented beans. red showed better results with 78.05% and 77.68% inhibition, respectively.

Conclusão

While the yellow grains obtained 41.5% and 15% inhibition of DPPH and ABTS radicals. The values corroborate those found for phenolic compounds, especially pulped fermented beans, and indicate the antioxidant potential of coffee, a functional property that can bring health benefits, contributing to the prevention of chronic and degenerative diseases.