POTASSIUM AND ITS EFFECT ON THE CONTENT OF POLYPHENOLS IN ONION (ALLIUM CEPA L.)

Abstract

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is rich of chemoprotective compounds as polyphenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins, vitamins, sulphur compounds which have potential beneficial properties for human health. Potassium as important mineral abundant plays many vital roles in plant nutrition (reduces respiration, activates enzyme). In generally, potassium increases crop yield and improves quality of onion bulbs. The objectives of this work were to compare and evaluate the impact of potassium on the content of total polyphenols and antioxidant activity of onion (Allium cepa L.). The content of the total polyphenols was determined by using the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent (FCR). The absorbance was measured at 765 nm of wave length against blank. Antioxidant activity was measured using a compound DPPH˙ (2.2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) at 515.6 nm in the spectrophotometer. The content of total polyphenols in samples of onion during vegatation period moved in the range from 505.6 mg GAE/kg ±25.18 to 621.49 mgGAE/kg ±13.41. In this work was watched also the influence of potassium on antioxidant activity, where values were in interval from 32.20 %± 0.58 to 44.67 % ±0.68.