Bioactive compounds and in vitro antioxidant activity assessment of GM Bt eggplant-III (Noyantara) and stability upon boiling

To control the fruit-and-shoot borer infestation and meet the demand of booming consumer, genetically modified GM Bt eggplant-III (Noyantara) was introduced in India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines in 2013. This genetic modification could lead to changes in metabolic pathways and may result in the variation of the molecular pattern, with particular attention to antioxidant compounds. With this purview, this study was carried out to investigate the status of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of GM Bt eggplant-III and their changes upon common processing methods likely boiling. To investigate the effect of boiling, the Bt eggplant-III was boiled at 100 °C for 1, 5, 10, and 20 min, respectively. From the physicochemical analysis, it was found that the pH and water solubility index increased with increasing the boiling time, whereas ash content decreased. The present study revealed that Bt eggplant-III contains an appreciable amount of polyphenols, flavonoids, anthocyanin, and carotenoids. However, processing by boiling caused the loss of these valuable compounds except for carotenoids. The present study evaluated the antioxidant activities of Bt eggplant-III in terms of different in vitro methods such as DPPH, metal chelating activity, and superoxide radical scavenging activity. Results showed that the ethanolic extract of Bt eggplant-III could effectively scavenge reactive oxygen species. For prolonged boiling, the IC50 values were increased which thereby indicating a decreased in antioxidant activity of Bt eggplant-III.