Total Phenolics, Phenolic Acids, Isoflavones, and Anthocyanins and Antioxidant Properties of Yellow and Black Soybeans As Affected by Thermal Processing

The effects of boiling and steaming processes on the phenolic components and antioxidant activities of whole yellow (with yellow seed coat and yellow cotyledon) and black (with black seed coat and green cotyledon) soybeans were investigated. As compared to the raw soybeans, all processing methods caused significant (p < 0.05) decreases in total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), condensed tannin content (CTC), monomeric anthocyanin content (MAC), DPPH free radical scavenging activity (DPPH), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and oxygen radical absorbing capacity (ORAC) in black soybeans. Pressure steaming caused significant (p < 0.05) increases in TPC, CTC, DPPH, FRAP, and ORAC in yellow soybeans. The steaming resulted in a greater retention of TPC, DPPH, FRAP, and ORAC values in both yellow and black soybeans as compared to the boiling treatments. To further investigate the effect of processing on phenolic compounds and elucidate the contribution of these compounds to changes of antioxidant activities, phenolic acids, isoflavones, and anthocyanins were quantitatively determined by HPLC. The pressure steaming treatments caused significant (p < 0.05) increases in gallic acid and 2,3,4-trihydroxybenzoic acid, whereas all treatments caused significant (p < 0.05) decreases in two predominant phenolic acids (chlorogenic acid and trans-cinnamic acid), and total phenolic acids for both yellow and black soybeans. All thermal processing caused significant (p < 0.05) increases in aglucones and beta-glucosides of isoflavones, but caused significant (p < 0.05) decreases in malonylglucosides of isoflavones for both yellow and black soybeans. All thermal processing caused significant (p < 0.05) decreases of cyanidin-3-glucoside and peonidin-3-glucoside in black soybeans. Significant correlations existed between selected phenolic compositions, isoflavone and anthocyanin contents, and antioxidant properties of cooked soybeans.