Domestic cooking methods affect the nutritional quality of red cabbage.
The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of domestic cooking methods, including steaming, microwave heating, boiling and stir-frying on the nutritional quality of red cabbage. Compared with fresh-cut red cabbage, all cooking methods were found to cause significant reduction in anthocyanin and total glucosinolates contents. Moreover, steaming resulted in significantly greater retention of vitamin C and DPPH radical-scavenging activity, while stir-frying and boiling, two popular Chinese cooking methods, led to significant losses of total phenolic, vitamin C, DPPH radical-scavenging activity, and total soluble sugar as well as reducing sugars. Normally, red cabbage consumed fresh in salads could maintain the highest nutrition. However, considering the habits of Asian cuisine, it is recommended to use less water and less cooking time, such as steaming based on our present results, so as to retain the optimum benefits of the health-promoting compounds.
Department of Food Science and Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, Zhejiang, PR China. Electronic address: xufeng1@nbu.edu.cn.
Feng
F
Xu
College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, Jiangsu, PR China.
Yonghua
Y
Zheng
College of Biological and Environmental Science, Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo 315100, Zhejiang, PR China.
Zhenfeng
Z
Yang
Nanjing Research Institute for Agricultural Mechanization, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing 210014, Jiangsu, PR China.
Shifeng
S
Cao
Department of Food Science and Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, Zhejiang, PR China.
Xingfeng
X
Shao
Department of Food Science and Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, Zhejiang, PR China.
Hongfei
H
Wang
D000872:Anthocyanins; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D001937:Brassica / Q000737:chemistry*; D003296:Cooking; D009753:Nutritive Value; D014675:Vegetables / Q000737:chemistry*
D000872:Anthocyanins; D001205:Ascorbic Acid
Cooking methods; Nutrition; Quality; Red cabbage