Investigation of Some Phytochemical Contents and Antioxidant Activities of Hass and Fuerte Avocado Cultivars Grown in Alanya Ecological Conditions

Avocado is recommended by experts in many diets because of the variety and richness of nutritional elements in fruit. Fruit flesh contains very low levels of sugar, while it contains dietary fiber, unsaturated fats, many vitamins and minerals, and a large number of phytochemical compounds with bioactive properties. In this study, total phenolic, total flavanoid, total ascorbic acid and pigment contents with antioxidant capacities were determined based on three different methods of leaf and fruit methanolic extracts of Hass and Fuerte avocado cultivars grown in Alanya ecological conditions. As a result of the study, it was determined that leaf extracts contain higher total phenolic content, total flavanoid content, total ascorbic acid content and antioxidant capacity than those of fruit extracts. ABTS (2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical scavenging activity of extracts was 35.9% (Hass fruit extract) and 60.5% (Fuerte leaf extract), DPPH radical scavenging activity was (1,1-diphenyl-2-) picrylhydrazyl) between 30.7% (Hass fruit extract) and 51.4% (Fuerte leaf extract), FRAP (Ferric ion reducing antioxidant power) value was 130.8 µmol FeII g-1 (Hass fruit extract) and 267.5 µmol FeII g-1 (Fuerte leaf extract) has been determined. The chlorophyll a values of the extracts were found to be higher than the chlorophyll b values. The highest total chlorophyll content was found in leaf extracts of Hass and Fuerte cultivars (22.89 and 21.72 µg g-1, respectively). Total carotenoid content was higher in leaf samples than fruit samples and it was found that it ranged from 0.07 µg g-1 (Hass fruit extract) to 4.16 µg g-1 (Fuerte leaf extract).