Antioxidant properties of raw and cooked spears of green asparagus cultivars.

This study was conducted to evaluate the antioxidant properties, including phenolics, ascorbic acid and carotenoids of four green asparagus ( Asparagus officinalis L.) spears cultivars (UC 157, AM 822, Gijnlim, and Grande) grown under greenhouse conditions and to asses their changes during cooking process. The highest spear production of category ‘extra’ and ‘first’ was recorded on ‘UC 157’, whereas the higher production of “second” class spears was recorded on ‘UC 157’ and ‘Gijnlim’. The Grande cultivar has provided a higher total phenol, quercetin, rutin and lutein + zeaxantin contents in comparison to ‘UC 157’, ‘Gjinlim’ and ‘AM 822’ cultivars. The results also indicate that the effect of cooking process was significant and more pronounced than the effect of cultivars. The cooking process increased the antioxidant activity, total phenols, quercetin, rutin, β-carotene and lutein + zeaxantin contents by, 16%, 23%, 98%, 32%, 24% and 25%, respectively, but decreased the total ascorbic acid content by 52%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]