Antioxidant capacities of plant-derived foods commonly consumed in Japan

To provide reliable data for high quality epidemiological studies examining the relationship between health and antioxidant intake from daily foods, 107 plant-derived food items (12 rice, bread and noodles, 5 potatoes and starches, 9 pulses, 6 nuts/seeds, 29 vegetables, 22 fruits, 5 mushrooms, 7 algae, and 12 beverages) were selected as commonly consumed foods in Japan based on dietary records, and their antioxidant capacities were evaluated by validated hydrophilic-and lipophilic-oxygen radical absorbance capacity (H-ORAC and L-ORAC) methods. The food items covered more than 60% of total food intake for each category on a weight basis. The H-ORAC and L-ORAC values were widely distributed at 0–210 and 0–30 mmol-Trolox equivalent/g, respectively. The foods possessing potent antioxidant capacities were found in vegetables and fruits as well as other plant-derived foods. In most foods measured, the H-ORAC values were much larger than the L-ORAC values, except for certain kinds of pulses, nuts/seeds, mushrooms, and algae. The ORAC data shown here is sufficient to accurately estimate the antioxidant intake from plant-derived foods in Japan, and should be useful in future epidemiological studies aiming to clarify the biological significance of ORAC values.