2006, Volume 12 No. 1

ARTICLE 9

Total Antioxidant Activity and Total Phenolic Contents in Yemeni Smoked Cheese

Mutahar Shaiban¹, Mohammed AL-Mamary² & Molham AL-Habori^3
1Department of Food Sciences, Faculty of Agricul ture, 
²Department of Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, 
³Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sana'a University, Sana'a, Yemen.

ABSTRACT
The antioxidant activity and total phenolic content of smoked cheese subjected to smoke treatment by different types of wood materials (Dodonia viscosa, Zizyphus spin christi, and Acacia asak) are reported in this study. The total phenolic contents were determined according to the Folin-Ciocalteu method and were significantly higher (3-fold) in the smoked cheese (ranged from 59.9 to 62.1 mg / 100g fresh weight of cheese, as Catechin equivalent) compared to the non-smoked cheese. However, the three types of smoked cheese did not significantly differ from each other. The total phenolic content in commercially smoked cheese was approximately 2-times higher than the three treated cheese samples. Antioxidant activity of smoked cheese samples were assayed in vitro by the inhibition of liver homogenate oxidation using FeSO₄ /ascorbate system. The addition of different levels (25 µl, 50 µl, 100 µl and 200 µl) of cheese suspension equivalent to 2.5mg, 5mg, 10mg and 20mg of smoked cheese respectively to the reaction mixture showed that the antioxidant activity increased with increasing levels of smoked cheese suspension. The total antioxidant activity obtained from different levels (30.9 - 46.3%) of the cheese treated by Zizyphus spina christi was the highest and was significantly different in comparison with the other two treatments. The total antioxidant activity of commercially smoked cheese are similar to that of Zizyphus spina christi at the lower levels and higher at the higher levels.

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