Phytochemical profiles, total phenolics contents, and antioxidant activities of juices from three lemon (Citrus limon) varieties available in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines

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Research Paper 11/05/2024
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Phytochemical profiles, total phenolics contents, and antioxidant activities of juices from three lemon (Citrus limon) varieties available in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines

Claire Marie Jimenez Arro, Romeo Macaltao Del Rosario, Angelo Mark Po Walag
Int. J. Biosci. 24(5), 197-202, May 2024.
Copyright Statement: Copyright 2024; The Author(s).
License: CC BY-NC 4.0

Abstract

Lemon (Citrus limon) is a small fruit-bearing tree from the Rutaceae family. This study compared the phytochemical composition, the total phenolics (an antioxidant group of substances), and the antioxidant activity measured as free radical scavenging activity of the juices of three lemon varieties from Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. The phytochemical screening was conducted by applying qualitative tests for carbohydrates, reducing sugars, glycosides, steroids, saponins, phenols and tannins, flavonoids, anthraquinones, alkaloids, and proteins. Then, the Folin-Ciocalteu test assessed the total phenolics content of the samples. Moreover, the percent scavenging effect via the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity determined its antioxidant activity. Finally, the Pearson correlation test examined the statistical correlation between total phenolics content and antioxidant activity. The lemon juice samples contain many bioactive compounds, including reducing sugars, glycosides, steroids, saponins, phenols and tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids, and proteins. All three juices exhibited high and significantly different total phenolics contents ranging from 460.57 – 686.18 mg/L. The juices also showed high antioxidant activities against free radicals which varied significantly from 89.84 – 92.80 % scavenging effect. The correlation between these two sets of data—total phenolics and free radical scavenging—indicates the very big contribution of the phenolic compounds to the antioxidant activity.

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