First insight into the antioxidant activity of sugar beet intermediate products

Abstract

While the nature of antioxidants in sugar cane processing is well documented and understood, little information exist about the antioxidant activity of sugar beet manufacturing products. In this work, besides basic quality parameters, antioxidant activity of A (white) sugar, B (raw) sugar and affinated C sugar, obtained from the process of sugar production was tested. As the antioxidant activity of cane brown sugars was connected with the presence of polyphenol compounds and Maillard reaction products, the content of these compounds was measured, as well. Apart from the highest sucrose content (99.50 °Z), A sugar was characterized with the lowest invert sugar (0.008%/DM) and coloured matter content (54 IJ/DM). However, A sugar showed no antioxidant activity and also it did not contain a detectable amount of plant phenolics. Contrary to this, sugars B and C contained less sucrose (99.22 and 97.6 °Z, respectively) and more coloured matter (329 and 20366 IJ/DM, respectively). Antioxidant activity of C sugar was higher than that of B sugar, which corresponded with higher total phenolic and coloured matter content of C sugar. Our results indicate that both, plant phenolics and Maillard reaction products can be associated with the antioxidant activity. Despite the fact that colour of the final product presents a key quality measurement in sugar industries, with regard to the antioxidant activity, consumption of brown sugars can be recommended.