• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.60-67
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• 2013

A laboratory experiment was conducted to determine the content of phenolics and flavonoids, antioxidant activity and antioxidant enzyme activity for the extracts from cowpea seed and sprouts. Plant length and weight of cowpea sprouts were significantly increased until 7 days after seeding. Total phenolics level [mg chlorogenic acid equivalents (CAE) $kg^{-1}$ DW] was highest in dry seed (DS) extracts of cowpea ($63.9mg\;kg^{-1}$), followed by imbibed seed (IS) ($56.8mg\;kg^{-1}$) and 1-day-old sprout (1DOS) extracts ($46.4mg\;kg^{-1}$), and significantly reduced with increase of sprout age (p < 0.05). The antioxidant activity of the methanol extracts from all the samples showed same tendency to the results of total phenolics level, and dose-dependently increased. DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl radical) free radical scavenging activity was higher in DS (87.3%) and IS (41.2%) than in cowpea sprouts from 1DOS to 7DOS, ranging from 17.1 to 30.4%. Antioxidant enzymes, APX, POX, and POX activities were highest in 7DOS and lowest in DS. SOD activity showed much higher activity in sprouts and in seeds. Correlation coefficient between physiological-active substance and the activity was highest between APX and CAT activities ($r^2$= 0.9574). Especially, total phenolics content was more highly correlated with antioxidant or with antioxidant enzyme activities than was total flavonoid level.