Antioxidant activity, phenolic and sugar content of light and dark dried fig (Ficus carica L.) cultivars grown in Croatia

Common fig (Ficus carica L.) is one of the oldest cultivated fruit trees being consumed worldwide in its fresh and dried forms. However, as a highly perishable fruit, most of fig production is preserved and distributed on the market as dried. Even though interest in cultivation of this fruit in Croatia is increasing, the consumers' awareness on diversity of fig cultivars and beneficial properties of dried fig consumption is still lacking. The aim of this study was to assess the total phenolic content and total antioxidant activity as well as sugar composition of dried fruits of 8 light and 5 dark fig cultivars and accessions commonly grown and consumed in Croatia. The antioxidant activity was evaluated using two methods: Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma (FRAP) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging. Results showed that dark cultivars contained higher levels of total phenolics (ranging from 1.00 to 1.51 mg GAEQ g(-1) FW) compared to the light-colored skin cultivars (ranging from 0.70 to 1.17 mg GAEQ g(-1) FW). Regarding the sugar profile, 'Susioka' was found to have the highest glucose (19.12 g 100 g(-1) FW) and fructose (21.56 g 100 g(-1) FW) content. Total antioxidant activity of dark fig cultivars was higher than of light-colored cultivars, on average we observed a 1.8 and 2-fold increase for FRAP and DPPH, respectively. High correlations were found between total phenolic content and antioxidant activities. Dried fig fruits have shown to be a good source of antioxidants, compounds known to have beneficial effect to the human health.