PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS CONTENT AND RADICAL SCAVENGING CAPACITY OF WHEAT-LENTIL DOUGH

The lentil (Lens culinarisL.) is a legume plant, one of the oldest known food crops and medicinal plants. The health benefits of lentil are well known: its consumption reduces the risks of cardiovascular diseases and some cancers. It has a low glycemic food index and is important in the dietary treatment of diabetes mellitus.Unfortunately, its consumption in many countries is low. Since bread is a daily consumed food this can be improved by adding the lentil in wheat flour. In this paper the content and DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) scavenging capacity of phenolic compounds from wheat dough and dough obtained by wheat flour supplemented with 40% of lentil flour were examined and compared. The dough with lentil flour had higher content of phenolic compounds than the dough with wheat flour only (2144.7 and 1592.5 g of chlorogenic acid/g, respectively) and achieved higher DPPH scavenging capacity (SC50 value was 21.2 and 56.3 mg/mL, respectively). Results showed that, after baking, the dough retained the same value of DPPH scavenging capacity, while baked wheat-lentil dough had near three times higher antioxidant activity than baked wheat dough. These investigations indicate that the lentil flour is useful food ingredient for improving the antioxidative potential of wheat flour.Key words: Lentil, dough, phenolic compound, scavenging capacit