Comparison among different hop varieties: investigation on their antioxidant activity and their monomeric flavan-3-ols content

摘要

Several health properties, like the anticarcenogenic effect, are exclusively attributed to some hop secondary metabolites. Only few studies investigated the antioxidant activity of hops comparing different hop cultivars but no works took in consideration varieties grown in the same area under the same experimental conditions. The aim of the present work was to investigate the radical scavenging activity of 15 hop cultivars, harvested in two different crop years (2004 and 2005). A positive correlation was found between the hop antioxidant activity and the alpha acids content, and between the hop antioxidant activity and the xanthohumol levels.