Abstract
Corn (Zea mays L.) has long been used as a forage crop because of its high nutritive value. Purple corn has an added benefit, because it contains anthocyanin, a strong antioxidant, in its cob, kernel, and leaf-stems. Thus, it may offer additional health benefits as a livestock feed. In this study, we examined the feasibility of using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to estimate the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging activity and anthocyanin content of corn cob, kernel, and leaf-stem. NIRS calibration of DPPH radical-scavenging activity and anthocyanin content of corn cob and leaf-stem with a high ratio of the standard error of performance to the standard deviation of the reference data (≥2.4) and a high coefficient of correlation (≥0.81) was used for the screening along with multiple linear regression (MLR), partial least square regression (PLSR), or principal component regression (PCR) analysis. Our results demonstrate that NIRS can be used to estimate high DPPH radical-scavenging activity and high anthocyanin content of corn samples for breeding.
