Antioxidant activity and total weight of carotenoids in red sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) tuber

Abstract

West Java is the 2^nd highest after Papua in the harvested of sweet potato. Sweet potato is a food alternative after corn. The nutritional content of sweet potato lower than rice, but sweet potatoes has phytochemicals content which has health benefits. One of its phytochemical is carotenoids, which act as an antioxidant nutrient. The ob- jective of the research is to evaluate antioxidant activity and the total weight of carotenoids of local sweet potato. Carotenoids were isolated by column chromatography method with alumunium oxide as stationer phase and n- hexane as mobile phase. Carotenoids present were identified with measure of its ultraviolet spectrum, total weight was weighed with a balance, and antioxidant activity was measured by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method. Spectrum of carotenoids have two peaks were 449 and 475 nm. In fresh sample, total weight of carotenoids was 62.1386 mg/100g, and antioxidant activity was 4.89 mg/ml. In conclusion, the local sweet potato harvested from Maja (West Java) contains carotenoids, which effectively reduce blindness and eye diseases, re- lated to β-carotene. Besides that, it also contains antioxidant, which helps in preventing diseases caused by free radicals.