COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF BIOLOGICAL EFFECT OF FOUR SUNFLOWER (HELIANTHUS ANNUUS L.) GENOTYPES: AGRO-FOOD BYPRODUCTS AS PROMISING NATURAL NEW FOOD ADDITIVES

Objective: Food additives are widely used in industry to improve the appearance, quality and safety of food during processing, storage and packaging. The sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an important agricultural product that is cultivated worldwide for seeds. Its seeds are one of the largest sources of vegetable oil. In this study, the biological activity of sunflower seeds as well as various plant parts, which are agricultural by-products and mostly treated as waste, was tested and their potential for use as a food additive was determined. Material and Method: The antiproliferative effect of six different plant parts (seeds, ray florets, disc florets, leaves, stems and receptacle) of four sunflower varieties (DERAY, SY GRANIT, P64 LP 130, TR 2242 CL) against the healthy cell line L929 was investigated using the MTT method and the concentration range that can be safely used was determined. The antioxidant capacity was determined using the DPPH, TEAC and CUPRAC methods. Inhibition of the enzyme tyrosinase was investigated to prevent enzymatic browning of food. Result and Discussion: It was found that even at concentration of 400 and 800 µg/ml, safe use is possible. In all methods, disc floret and ray floret showed a strong antioxidant effect. In the DPPH free radical scavenging effect of the ray floret of the TR 2242 CL showed the highest value with 101.40 mg gallic acid/g extract. Disc and ray floret showed strong inhibition of the tyrosinase enzyme in all varieties. The enzyme inhibition of methanol extracts of TR 2242 CL ray and disc floret was found to be 60.42 and 151.25 mg KAE/g extract, respectively. The lack of cytotoxicity against healthy cells, the high antioxidant capacity and the strong anti-browning activity suggest that sunflower agro-food byproducts may be a new, non-toxic, cost-effective and recyclable source to be used in the food industry instead of food additives that have negative side effects on health.