Abstract
Research on natural antioxidants in foods has gained interest in recent years. A wide variety of methods have been used to evaluate antioxidative activity in vitro. However, standardized methods have not yet been established, therefore necessitating the development of novel official methods. We evaluated the scavenging activity of 4 radical species using the electron spin resonance (ESR) spin trapping method and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) of the hot water extracts of 13 mushroom species. Moreover, we measured the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity of samples. The radical scavenging activity of samples evaluated by ESR did not correlate with the DPPH radical scavenging activity. In order to comprehensively characterize the properties of individual radicals, the radical balance of 6 radical scavenging activities was compared using radar charts. Activity strength was indicated by the area of the radar charts. The radical balance was categorized according to specific radical groups. We propose that antioxidative activity can be evaluated by determining the balance of radical scavenging activity of various mushrooms using radar charts.
