Study of Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant Capacity of Spanish Almonds

Abstract

Phenolic compounds have an important influence on fruit and nut quality. Almonds have been shown to be rich sources of phenolic compounds, which possess health-beneficial properties. The objectives of the study were to optimize an extraction method to determine the total amount of polyphenols, flavonoids and proanthocyanidins as well as the antioxidant capacity. In addition, the same extract was used for the identification and quantification of flavonoids by HPLC. The study was conducted on 11 Spanish almond genotypes. The results highlight the differences in the content of antioxidants, which add value to the quality of the fruit. It has been shown that genotype may strongly influence antioxidant capacity and total phenolic compounds. In this work, the almonds with higher results were (Belona, Guara and Vialfas) varieties.