Antioxidant Activities in Sweet Potatoes Leaves Steamed with Spices

Sweet potato leaves contain phenolic and flavonoids compounds which give them a potential antioxidant capacity. However, these antioxidant activities can be lost during cooking due to high temperature. In the aim to enhance their antioxidant activities, sweet potato leaves were steamed with antioxidant spices. The spices were used alone or mixed- nutmeg, Guinea pepper, cloves, nutmeg-Guinea pepper, nutmeg-cloves, Guinea pepper-cloves and nutmeg-Guinea pepper-cloves. The phytochemical analysis was carried-out on total phenolic compounds and flavonoids, while the antioxidant activities were determined via free radical-scavenging and inhibition power of lipid peroxidation. The results showed that cloves total phenolic content (513.33 mg Gallic Acid Equivalent (GAE)/g dry matter (DM)) increased to 1786.67 mg GAE/g DM when mixed with Guinea pepper. Flavonoids content was high in Guinea pepper-cloves (57.17 mg Quercetin Equivalent (QE)/g DM). In sweet potato steamed leaves, total phenolic compounds content is improved by incorporating cloves (625.83 mg GAE/g DM), while flavonoids content is slightly improved by Guinea pepper (125.00 mg QE/g DM). Among spices, cloves, Guinea pepper-cloves and nutmeg IC50 values (0.45, 0.83 and 1.50 μg/ml respectively) did not differ significantly to that of vitamin C (1.67 μg/ml), indicating that they had a good antiradical activity. The capacity of spices and steamed sweet potato leaves with and without spices to inhibit lipid peroxidation was higher than that of Gallic acid which is the standard reference. Spices, particularly cloves and Guinea pepper can improve antioxidant activities during sweet potato leaves steaming.