Variability in phytochemicals and antioxidant activity in corn at immaturity and physiological maturity stages

The pigmented corn is a rich source of phytochemicals and many secondary metabolites. Therefore, the objectives of this research were to evaluate the performance of corn genotypes with different colors for total anthocyanin content (TAC), total carotenoid content (TCC), total phenolic content (TPC), 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity (DPPH), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and Trolox equivalents antioxidant capacity (TEAC) at immaturity and physiological maturity stages, to study the correlation among studied traits and to identify corn genotypes with high phytochemical and antioxidant activities. Corn harvested at dry kernel stage was significant and slightly higher than corn harvest at fresh kernel stage for all parameters. The purple waxy corn genotypes had the highest TAC at both stages. Field corn had the highest TCC followed by super sweet corn. For fresh kernel stage, a super sweet corn genotype (SWWY) had the highest TPC. Purple waxy corn genotypes had the highest antioxidant activity, cyanidin-3-glucoside and pelargonidin-3-glucoside at both maturity stages. TAC was significantly correlated with TEAC, DPPH, FRAP, and TPC. TPC had positive and significant correlations with TEAC, FRAP, and DPPH. Positive and significant correlations between DPPH with TEAC and FRAP were observed, whereas FRAP had a close association with TEAC. The information of this study could be used for consumer’s selection of a specialty corn, production planning, development of health food products, and pharmaceutical industries.