For Abstracts

Min-Sun Chang1, Shin-Young Lee1, Moon-Cheol Jeong2, Gun-Hee Kim11DukSung Women’s University, 2Korea Food Research Institute

Consumers are aware of their health and more conscious of environmental conditions. There is an increasing demand for agri-foods obtained from organic agricultural practices. The present study aimed to compare the quality characteristics and antioxidant activities between organically and conventionally grown welsh onion (Allium fistulosum L.). The weight, length, diameter, moisture contents and color (Hunter L, a, b) were measured for the quality characteristics. In addition, total phenols, total flavonoids, and the DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activities were analyzed for the antioxidant activities of organically and conventionally grown welsh onion. The weight, length, diameter, and moisture contents were similar between the organically and conventionally grown welsh onions. The L (lightness) values of the organic welsh onion were higher than the conventionally grown ones (p<0.05). The total phenol contents were 90.77 mg GAE/g in the organic and 81.10 mg GAE/g in the conventional welsh onion. The total flavonoid contents in organically cultivated welsh onion were significantly higher than the conventional welsh onions (p<0.001). The respective DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activities were 4.71% and 18.21% in the organically grown welsh onion and 4.72% and 18.05% in the conventionally grown welsh onion. Therefore, organically grown welsh onion were found to have better compositional quality than product.