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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

antioxidants, apples, cancer, antioxidant capacities

College

Life Sciences

Department

Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Abstract

They say “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Apples are laden with antioxidants which have been shown to prevent against cancer and other illnesses.1 Antioxidants are molecules that prevent cancer by collecting excess free radicals in the body. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules. They may interfere with DNA and other biomolecules leading to DNA damage and mutations. Antioxidants prevent this by scavenging for free radicals before they can interact with other important biomolecules.2 Apples, particularly the skins, have high phenolic content. Phenols are antioxidants that protect against oxidative damage caused by free radicals.3 Different types of apples and different parts of the apples contain various levels of phenolic content.4 While previous studies had measured antioxidant capacities of various types of apples and apple parts, there were more questions to be answered. For example, there had been a lot of debate about whether or not organic foods are healthier. My project studied the difference in antioxidant levels between several types of organic apples versus conventionally-grown apples of the same types. Additionally, I studied the content of different kinds of antioxidants within apples. There are lipid-soluble and water-soluble antioxidants, and both are necessary to protect against free radical damage in different parts of the body.5 Apple samples were tested using the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) assay, according to published methods, with a Fluo-star Optima microplate reader.

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