葡萄柚果汁中的主要苦味成分為柚苦苷,可經去苦味酵素α-L-鼠李糖苷酶及β-D-葡萄糖苷酶水解去除之。本研究主要是探討利用不同去苦味酵素作用於葡萄柚汁後果汁的抗氧化能力。研究發現酵素去苦味後葡萄柚汁清除DPPH自由基的能力、清除過氧化氫的能力、清除超氧陰離子及氧自由基吸收能力皆提高,其中去苦味果汁的總抗氧化能力(TEAC)值由控制組的2.47顯著增加為4.02,而可能的機制因苦味黃炕酮醣虷經酵素水解後,黃烷酮的抗氧化能力較其醣苷為高。研究成果說明了利用α-L-鼠李糖苷酶去除葡萄柚汁的苦味可提高葡萄柚汁的抗氧化機能性,並且首度發現利用酵素水解葡萄柚汁中的苦味物質可提高抗氧化能力。
Debittering of grapefruit juice could be accomplished through hydrolyzing the bitter flavanone naringin to purine by α-L-rhamnosidase, and further hydrolyzing purine to naringenin by β-D-glucosidase. The objective of this study was to evaluate the change of antioxidant activity of the partly/completely debittered grapefruit juices. Results demonstrated that all the debittered juices exhibited superior activity (p<0.05) in scavenging DPPH radicals, hydroxyl radicals, hydrogen peroxide, and superoxide radicals to the control. Additionally, the trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) value of grapefruit juice increased from 2.47 to 4.02 following the debitter processes using both α-L-rhamnosidase and β-D-glucosidase. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of naringenin, the aglycone form of naringin, was significantly (p<0.05) higher than its glycosides purine and naringin. These results suggest that the enhancement of antioxidant activity in debittered grapefruit juice could be contributed by the flavanones hydrolysis in the juice. This is the first report describes that enzymatic debittering could fortify the antioxidant activity of grapefruit juice.