Sweet cherries (Prunus avium L.) contain various phenolic compounds which contribute to total antioxidant activity. Besides fruits, steams also contains siginificant amount of phytonutrients and could be used for health-promoting herbal teas or infusions. Content of total polyphenols, tannins, and flavonoids and antioxidant capacity in a dry steams of a number of selected sweet cherry genotypes were investigated spectrophotometrically. Total polyphenols content ranged from 12.96 to 31.85 mg gallic acid equivantents/g dry steams weight and total tannins content ranged from 6.31 to 9.77 mg gallic acid equivalent/g dry steams weight. Total flavonoids were within the range 0.44-1.94 mg of rutin equivalents/g dry steams weight. Antioxidant activity of sweet cherry steams is related with the total polyphenolics, and flavonoids but not with tannins content. Sweet cherry fruit steams are a significant source of different phenolic compounds, and could be considered a good source of natural antioxidants.

Sweet cherry steams, phenolics, tannins, flavonoids, antioxidant capacity

Presentation: oral