A group of Shibaura Institute of Technology has developed a method to easily measure the content of polyphenols in foods.
Polyphenol is a plant-derived ingredient for which about 8,000 types have been confirmed so far. It is contained in many foods and is also known to have antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal effects.Some have been confirmed to detoxify and inactivate the new coronavirus, reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, and decompose fat, and dietary intake is recommended due to their health benefits. However, the polyphenol database is centered on Western research data and does not cover Asian vegetable foods and eating habits.The challenge is to increase awareness of polyphenol content in foods by building a database of polyphenols based on Asian diets.
Under these circumstances, the Group has established a technology for identifying polyphenol components and measuring their content in a shorter time, at lower cost, and more easily by electrochemical analysis using carbon nanotube electrodes.The potential and current are measured by the cyclic voltammetry (CV) method using the functional surface electrodes of carbon nanotubes, which are nanomaterials.The component can be specified from the waveform of the measurement result, and the amount of the component can be measured by the amount of current.High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), which is a conventional method, requires an expensive large-scale device and skillful technique, and it takes about one hour for measurement. Results can be obtained in about minutes.The measurement error was only ± 1% compared to HPLC.
By establishing a cheaper and simpler method than HPLC, it is expected that the effective intake of polyphenols will be promoted by quantifying the content of polyphenols in foods.This is a result that is expected to contribute to the "realization of a healthy and long-lived society," including the prevention of infections including the new coronavirus.
