Antioxidant Activities, Total Phenols, and Proanthocyanidin Changes during Storage of Fourteen Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.) Populations from Serbia – A Chemometric Approach

Abstract

Considering the interest in the consumption of faba bean and study of antioxidants in natural food resources, methanol extracts of fourteen Vicia faba cultivars harvested from a two-year field experiment were studied for their phenolic compounds, proanthocyanidines, and antioxidant activities by the DPPH free radical scavenging assay, ABTS cation radical decolorization assay, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC), and total reducing power (TRP). The results indicate significant differences among the populations in their content of polyphenols and proanthocyanidine, resulting in variations in antioxidant activity of seed extracts. The storage of V. faba mature seeds under uncontrolled, but identical conditions decreased the total phenol content and antioxidant properties. The total phenols were from 10.12 ± 0.19 to 18.53 ± 0.14 mg GAE g−1 DE (2021 year) and 19.52 ± 0.16 to 26.94 ± 0.34 mg GAE g−1 DE (2022 year). In the 2022 growing season, the DPPH free radical scavenging activity had higher values for all populations from 4.83 ± 0.002 to 6.17 ± 0.003 g mg TE g−1 DE. Hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis obtained from antioxidative profiles grouped the samples into two major clusters. The first cluster consists of extracts of V. faba cultivars from the 2021 growing season, while the V. faba cultivars from the 2022 growing season are in second cluster. Tested cultivars can be used as a readily available source of natural antioxidants.