Fast DPPH antioxidant activity analysis by UHPLC-HRMS combined with chemometrics of tempeh during food processing

Tempeh is an antioxidant-rich soybean fermentation product from Java, Indonesia. Cooking methods have an impact on the nutritional value and bioactivity of food.

This study aims to investigate how the cooking process affects the metabolites and antioxidant activity in tempeh using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS).

A nontargeted UHPLC-HRMS metabolomics and chemometric analysis were used to evaluate metabolite profiles and antioxidant activity changes because of food processing in tempeh.

The score plots of tempeh produced by boiling and frying methods displayed a distinct separation from raw tempeh, revealing that the cooking process altered the metabolite composition of tempeh. Due to processing, L-glutamic acid, L-pyroglutamic acid, DL-glutamine, and D-( +)-proline became the most affected metabolites on tempeh. There were 70 metabolites that showed antioxidant activity using the DPPH assay; 23 metabolites significantly differ from DPPH and control for antioxidant activity for all processing tempeh. Metabolites with significantly different antioxidant activity in raw and processed tempeh were dominated by flavonoids, vitamin E, and bioactive lipids.

The DPPH antioxidant assay using UHPLC-HRMS is promising as a fast antioxidant assay by simplifying the conventional DPPH antioxidant assay. Further, it can be used to identify the name of metabolites responsible for its antioxidant activity.