HEALTH BENEFITS OF APPLES

Reprinted on a not-for-profit basis from

"Antioxidant and Antiproliferative Activities of Selected New York Apple Cultivators,"

by: Rui Jai Liu¹, Marian V. Eberhardt1, and Chang Yong Lee²

     Diets rich in fruits and vegetables have been associated with lower incidences in cancer and lower mortality from coronary heart disease. Antioxidants in fruits and vegetables are thought to reduce cancer rates by counteracting the prooxidant load of the body. In addition to the presence of vitamins C and E, fruits and vegetables are a rich source of other antioxidants such as phenolic acids and flavonoids. We measured the total antioxidant activity of several apples varieties by Total Oxyradical Scavenging Capacity (TOSC) expressed as mmol vitamin C equivalents per gram.  We found that all varieties of apples that we tested exhibited great antioxidant activity. Apples with the skin had higher antioxidant activity than apples without skin. Apple skins are known to contain higher amounts of phenolic compounds than the flesh. Others have reported that the amount of phenolics in the skin of apples is several times higher than that of the flesh and that the quercetin glycosides (the most predominate flavonoid in apples) are only found in the skin. Although apples have a relatively low vitamin C content (which is one of the better known antioxidants ), they do contain relatively high amounts of other antioxidants. The vitamin C in apples accounts for only 0.4% of total antioxidant activity. Therefore, the majority of antioxidant activity of apple is not from Vitamin C, but from other phytochemicals in apples. The combination of different phytochemicals in apples may function additively or synergistically to be responsible for this potent antioxidant activity.



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