abstract
- Wild mushrooms have become attractive as a source of physiologically beneficial compounds including antioxidants such as phenolic compounds and tocopherols. The concentrations of antioxidant compounds (phenolics and α-tocopherol) and EC50 values of antioxidant activity (concentration required to achieve 50% of radical scavenging activity and lipid peroxidation inhibition, or 0.5 of absorbance in reducing power) were analyzed by partial least square (PLS) regression analysis. Three QCAR (Quantitative Composition-Activity Relationship) models were constructed and their robustness and predictability were verified by internal and external cross-validation methods. Antioxidant activity correlated well with phenolics and -tocopherol contents, the major antioxidants in wild mushrooms. The models proved to be useful tools in the prediction of mushrooms radical scavenging activity, reducing power and lipid peroxidation inhibition.