Food Chemistry 161 (2014) 162–167

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Food Chemistry
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem

Domestic cooking methods affect the nutritional quality of red cabbage

Feng Xu a,⇑, Yonghua Zheng b, Zhenfeng Yang c, Shifeng Cao d, Xingfeng Shao a, Hongfei Wang a,⇑
a
Department of Food Science and Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, Zhejiang, PR China
b
College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, Jiangsu, PR China
c
College of Biological and Environmental Science, Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo 315100, Zhejiang, PR China
d
Nanjing Research Institute for Agricultural Mechanization, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing 210014, Jiangsu, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of domestic cooking methods, including steaming, micro-
Received 6 February 2014 wave heating, boiling and stir-frying on the nutritional quality of red cabbage. Compared with fresh-cut
Received in revised form 1 April 2014 red cabbage, all cooking methods were found to cause significant reduction in anthocyanin and total
Accepted 4 April 2014
glucosinolates contents. Moreover, steaming resulted in significantly greater retention of vitamin C
Available online 13 April 2014
and DPPH radical-scavenging activity, while stir-frying and boiling, two popular Chinese cooking meth-
ods, led to significant losses of total phenolic, vitamin C, DPPH radical-scavenging activity, and total sol-
Keywords:
uble sugar as well as reducing sugars. Normally, red cabbage consumed fresh in salads could maintain the
Red cabbage
Cooking methods
highest nutrition. However, considering the habits of Asian cuisine, it is recommended to use less water
Nutrition and less cooking time, such as steaming based on our present results, so as to retain the optimum benefits
Quality of the health-promoting compounds.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Before being consumed, most vegetables are commonly cooked.

In general, the cooking methods such as steaming, boiling, and
The consumption of Brassica vegetables is related to human microwaving were based on the dietary habit in western society,
health and to reduction of the risk of certain cancers and cardiovas- while stir-frying was used to prepare most homemade dishes in
cular diseases. Brassica vegetables like broccoli (Brassica oleracea China (Liu & Li, 2000). It is known that cooking induces profound
var. italica), radish (Raphanus sativus L.), kale (B. oleracea L. var. changes in chemical composition, affecting the bioavailability
acephala DC.) and cabbage (B. oleracea L.) are rich in phytochemi- and content of chemo-preventive compounds in vegetables. For
cals, such as phenolics, vitamins, glucosinolates and anthocyanin, example, it has been reported that microwave heating and stir-
which have a positive impact on human health (Wei, Miao, & frying were better to ensure a higher retention of the bioactive
Wang, 2011). components in term of pepper (Chuah et al., 2008). According to
Anthocyanins are a class of flavonoids responsible for the Jones, Frisina, Winkler, Imsic, and Tomkins (2010), cooking meth-
attractive bright red, purple, violet, and blue colours of most fruits, ods could significantly alter content of glucosinolates and sulfora-
vegetables, flowers, leaves, roots and other plant storage organs phane in broccoli florets. Brassica rapa vegetables cooked by
(Mazza & Miniati, 1993). Anthocyanins as a group of flavonoid steaming were better preserved glucosinolates and phenolic
compounds fulfill important biological functions in protecting compounds than other cooking procedures (conventional boiling
plants against various biotic and abiotic stresses, and in furnishing and high-pressure cooking) (Francisco, Velasco, Moreno,
flowers and fruits with distinct colours to attract insects and ani- García-Viguera, & Cartea, 2010).
mals for pollination and seed dispersal (Harborne & Williams, Red cabbage has been widely consumed as fresh-cut salad, bev-
2000). Red cabbage (B. oleracea L. var. capitata f. rubra DC.) is dis- erage and coleslaw. There have been many literatures on fresh red
tinct in containing high levels of anthocyanins, which has been cabbage, mainly on anthocyanin biosynthesis, glucosinolates or
shown to provide an increased protection in preventing tumour antioxidant-related parameters in red cabbage (Oerlemans,
development (Hagiwara et al., 2002). Barrett, Suades, Verkerk, & Dekker, 2006; Volden et al., 2008;
Yuan, Chiu, & Li, 2009). However, very little information is avail-
⇑ Corresponding authors. Tel./fax: +86 574 87609573 (F. Xu). able on the effect of cooking on the contents of nutrientional and
E-mail address: [email protected] (F. Xu). health-promoting compounds in red cabbage. The purpose of this

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.04.025
0308-8146/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 F. Xu et al. / Food Chemistry 161 (2014) 162–167 163

study is to investigate the effects of various cooking procedures on (800 ll) was added. The reaction mixture was incubated for 1 h
the nutrients and phytochemical compounds in red cabbage. at 30 °C. The absorbance was measured at 765 nm with a spectro-
photometer. Gallic acid was used as a standard.
2. Materials and methods
2.6. DPPH radical-scavenging activity assay
2.1. Plant materials
The DPPH radical-scavenging activity was carried out according
Red cabbages (B. oleracea L. var. capitata. Zaohong) were pur- to Larrauri, Sánchez-Moreno, and Saura-Calixto (1998). One gram
chased from local supermarkets (Ningbo, China). About 10 heads of frozen sample was extracted with 50% ethanol and centrifuged
of red cabbages were used in this experiment. The red cabbages at 12,000g for 10 min at 4 °C. An ethanolic solution of DPPH served
were cleaned and removed with the outer leaves of the heads, then as control. Antioxidant activity was expressed as percentage inhi-
chopped into homogeneous pieces (3 cm  3 cm) and randomly bition of the DPPH radical and was determined by the following
selected for each treatment. Each treatment was replicated three equation:
times. Abscontrol Abssample
AA ð%Þ ¼  100:
Abscontrol
2.2. Cooking treatments

Five different cooking methods were tested: fresh-cut, boiling, 2.7. Vitamin C
steaming, microwaving and conventional stir-frying. For boiling,
300 g of homogeneous pieces of red cabbage were immersed in Vitamin C content was determined according to Kampfenkel,
800 ml of boiling water. The materials were drained off after being Vanmontagu, and Inze (1995) . One gram of frozen samples were
boiled for 5 min. For stir-frying, the blend oil (10 ml) was pre- grinded and extracted with 5 ml 5% trichloroacetic acid (TCA), then
heated to 130 °C in a wok and materials (300 g) was stir-fried for centrifuged at 10,000g for 10 min at 4 °C. A sample of the crude
5 min. For microwave, 300 g of samples were placed in a plate extract (1 ml) was added to 1 ml 5% (v/v) TCA, 1 ml 100% (v/v)
and 10 ml of water was added to prevent red cabbage from being ethanol, 0.5 ml 0.4% H3PO4, 1 ml 0.5% (v/v) 1,10-phenanthroline
burned during cooking. A microwave oven at full power (450 W) hydrate, 0.5 ml 0.03% (v/v) FeCl3, then the mixture incubated at
for 5 min was used for microwaving. Steaming was conducted by 30 °C for 1 h. The absorbance was read at 534 nm.
suspending 300 g of red cabbage above 200 ml of boiling water
for 5 min in a steamer with a lid. In addition, 300 g of red cabbage 2.8. Contents of total soluble sugar and reducing sugar
was collected for fresh-cut samples.
At the end of each cooking treatment, the materials were frozen Total soluble sugar was measured by Roe (1955) with slight mod-
by liquid nitrogen and kept in polyethylene bags at –20 °C for fur- ifications. One gram of frozen samples were grinded and extracted
ther analysis. with 5 ml of distilled water and incubated at 85 °C for 30 min, then
centrifuged at 10,000g at 4 °C. The soluble sugar content was deter-
2.3. Colour measurement mined using anthrone reagent and glucose as standard. Reducing
sugars content was determined spectrophotometrically at 540 nm
The colour of all samples was evaluated with a Minolta Chrom- with 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid.
ameter (CR 400, Japan). The CIELAB parameters (L*, a* and b*) were
determined. L* was lightness (0–100:0 = black, 100 = white). Values 2.9. Total glucosinolates content
of a* and b* ranged from –60 to 60, where a* was negative for green
colour and positive for red colour, and b* was negative for blue and Total glucosinolates content was determined according to
positive for yellow (McGuire, 1992). Heaney, Spinks, and Fenwick (1988). The method was based on
the measurement of enzymically released glucose, which was
2.4. Total anthocyanin content hydrolysed by the enzyme myrosinase (thioglcose glycohydrolase,
EC 3.2.3.1). The content of glucose was determined by the method
Total anthocyanin content was measured by pH-differential of phenol–sulfuric acid, to assay the absorbance at 490 nm, and
spectrophotometry method following the procedure of Rapisarda, then the amount of glucosinolate can be calculated from the glu-
Fanella, and Maccarone (2000) with a slight modification. Five cose content.
grams of frozen sample was extracted with 25 ml of pH 1.0 buffer
containing 50 mM KCl and 150 mM HCl, as well as 25 ml of pH 4.5 2.10. Statistical analysis
buffer containing 50 mM sodium acetate and 240 mM HCl. Absor-
bance was measured at 510 nm and 700 nm with a spectropho- Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS package pro-
tometer, using A = [(A510  A700) pH 1.0  (A510  A700) pH 4.5] gramme version 16.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). All data were
with a molar extinction coefficient of cyaniding 3-glucoside of expressed as the mean ± standard error (SE) and analysis by one-
29600. Results were expressed as milligrams of Cy-3-Glu equiva- way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Differences were considered
lents per gram of fresh weight. significant at p < 0.05.

2.5. Total phenolic content 3. Results

Total phenolic content was determined by the Folin–Ciocalteu 3.1. Effect of cooking methods on visual changes and surface colour in
method. One gram of frozen red cabbage sample was extracted red cabbage
with 80% acetone containing 0.2% formic acid, and the mixture
was centrifuged at 12,000g for 10 min at 4 °C. In brief, an aliquot Changes of external colour of red cabbage were evaluated
(20 ll) of sample solution was mixed with 180 ll of distilled water through L*, a* and b*. The change of colour indexes in samples with
and 1 ml of Folin–Ciocalteu reagent; 7.5% sodium carbonate different cooking methods is shown in Table 1. Compared with
164 F. Xu et al. / Food Chemistry 161 (2014) 162–167

Table 1
Colour indexes in red cabbage cooked by different methods.

Colour index Fresh-cut Stir-frying Boiling Microwave Steaming

⁄
L 26.57 ± 2.96b 27.06 ± 2.32b 35.51 ± 4.65a 28.99 ± 3.27b 30.59 ± 1.68ab
a⁄ 32.89 ± 5.43a 26.95 ± 2.99ab 9.99 ± 2.65c 21.91 ± 3.98b 12.12 ± 2.99c
b* 10.62 ± 3.19a 13.19 ± 4.64a 8.18 ± 2.8a 13.79 ± 3.32a 11.87 ± 1.66a

All values are the means ± SE. Values not sharing a common letter are significantly different at p < 0.05.

fresh-cut samples, the boiling treatment profoundly enhanced the

L* value. All cooking methods, except stir-frying, caused an signif-
icant decrease of a* value in comparison with the fresh-cut red cab-
bage. However, b* values were not significantly affected by all
cooking treatments.

3.2. Effect of cooking treatments on the total anthocyanin content in

red cabbage

Compared to fresh-cut sample, the anthocyanin content was

significantly influenced by all cooking methods (Fig. 1). The great-
est loss of anthocyanin content was observed in red cabbage after
stir-frying and boiling treatments (62% and 55.5%, respectively),
followed by microwave heating and steaming (46.1% and 17.5%,
respectively).

3.3. Effect of cooking treatments on the total phenolic content and

DPPH radical-scavenging activity in red cabbage

There were no evident differences in total phenolic content

among the microwave heating, steaming and fresh-cut treatments.
In contrast, stir-frying and boiling caused significant loss of total
phenolic content (p < 0.05), compared with the fresh-cut samples.
The DPPH radical-scavenging activity was affected by cooking
methods (Fig. 2B). Compared with the fresh-cut materials, steam-
ing did not cause any notable loss of DPPH radical-scavenging
activity, while the other treatments, including stir-frying, boiling,
and microwaving, reduced the evident loss of DPPH radical-scav-
enging activity.
Fig. 2. The content of total phenolic (A) and DPPH radical-scavenging activity (B) in
red cabbage by different cooking methods (fresh-cut, stir-frying, boiling, micro-
3.4. Effect of cooking treatments on vitamin C content in red cabbage wave, steaming). Values are the means ± SE. Vertical bars represent the standard
errors of the means. Values not sharing a common letter are significantly different
Stir-frying and boiling caused the significant reduction in vita- at p < 0.05.
min C. In contrast, steaming and microwave heating did not cause

Fig. 1. The anthocyanin content in red cabbage cooked by different methods (fresh- Fig. 3. The vitamin C content in red cabbage cooked by different methods (fresh-
cut, stir-frying, boiling, microwave, steaming). Values are the means ± SE. Vertical cut, stir-frying, boiling, microwave, steaming).Values are the means ± SE. Vertical
bars represent the standard errors of the means. Values not sharing a common bars represent the standard errors of the means. Values not sharing a common
letter are significantly different at p < 0.05. letter are significantly different at p < 0.05.
 F. Xu et al. / Food Chemistry 161 (2014) 162–167 165

Fig. 5. The total glucosinolates content in red cabbage cooked by different methods
(fresh-cut, stir-frying, boiling, microwave, steaming).Values are the means ± SE.
Vertical bars represent the standard errors of the means. Values not sharing a
common letter are significantly different at p < 0.05.

purple fruits and vegetables, such as red cabbage. However, antho-

cyanins are vulnerable to temperature, which is the primary prob-
lem with the application of anthocyanins as food colourants in food
processing (Cemeroğlu, Velioğlu, & Isßik, 1994). For example, antho-
cyanin content in the roots of Chinese red radish decreased during
the heat treatment (Jing et al., 2012). Moreover, in blank carrot
Fig. 4. The total soluble and reducing sugar contents in red cabbage cooked by
juice and concentrates, increased degradation rate of anthocyanins
different methods (fresh-cut, stir-frying, boiling, microwave, steaming).Values are was observed with the increasing temperature during heating or
the means ± SE. Vertical bars represent the standard errors of the means. Values not storage. Similarly, in our work, the cooking treatments, such as
sharing a common letter are significantly different at p < 0.05. boiling, steaming, microwaving and conventional stir-frying,
which the cooking temperature reached 100 °C, resulted in the loss
of anthocyanin.
any significant loss of vitamin C, compared to the fresh-cut group
Compared with fresh-cut samples, total phenolic content was
(Fig. 3).
reduced in all the tested samples after different cooking
treatments. However, no significant decline was found in the
3.5. Effect of cooking treatments on total soluble and reducing sugar microwave heating- and steaming-cooked samples, which was
contents in red cabbage probably associated with the inactivation of the polyphenol oxi-
dase by heating, thereby inhibition of polyphenols degradation. It
The contents of total soluble and reducing sugar were quantita- has been also reported that leaching into the cooking water was
tively determined in red cabbage cooked by different methods also contributed to the depletion of total phenolic content in broc-
(Fig. 4). When compared to the fresh-cut red cabbage, all cooking coli after cooking (Vallejo, Tomás-Barberán, & García-Viguera,
treatments, except microwave heating, resulted in a dramatic loss 2003). In our present study, the portions of red cabbage did not
of total soluble sugar (p < 0.05). Stir-frying and boiling treatments contact with the cooking water thoroughly during steaming, there-
reduced the soluble sugar content in red cabbage by 35.4% and fore, the phenolic content was less affected by stir-frying and boil-
25.9%, respectively, whereas 14.2% in steaming treatment. ing, with only 29.4% and 28.2% losses, respectively. Our results
Compared with the fresh-cut samples, the cooking methods of showed that DPPH radical-scavenging activity of fresh-cut red cab-
microwave and steaming mostly kept the reducing sugar content bage was 95.64% more than the raw broccoli florets (78.17%),
after treatments, while boiling and stir-frying caused the signifi- which were reported by Turkmen, Sari, and Velioglu (2005),
cant (p < 0.05) loss of reducing sugar. because of the higher amounts of anthocyanins in red cabbage than
that in other vegetables. There was no profound difference in the
3.6. Effect of cooking treatments on total glucosinolates content in red DPPH radical-scavenging activity between fresh-cut and steaming
cabbage treatment, whereas the stir-frying, boiling and microwave treat-
ments caused a significant decrease in antioxidant activity
The total glucosinolates content was notably affected by all (Fig. 2B), which may be associated with the changes of total pheno-
cooking methods (p < 0.05) (Fig. 5). As compared the fresh-cut lic and anthocyanin contents after various treatments. Similar
samples, total glucosinolates content in stir-frying and boiling results were also found in raw broccoli florets (Zhang &
treatments were reduced by 76.7% and 76.3%, respectively, while Hamauzu, 2004).
in steaming only 15%. In general, thermal treatment is known to be able to accelerate
oxidation of ascorbic acid to dehydroascorbic acid (Gregory, 1996).
4. Discussion In this study, all the samples showed a reduction in vitamin C
content after cooked, regardless of the cooking methods (Fig. 3).
The concentrations and compositions of anthocyanin are The reduction in vitamin C levels in red cabbage were most
responsible for the diverse and attractive colours observed in pronounced when stir-fried or boiled, and the lowest when
166 F. Xu et al. / Food Chemistry 161 (2014) 162–167

fresh-cut, microwaved or steamed. In broccoli, there was a 29% loss better for human consumption habits to cook the red cabbage by
of vitamin C level when boiled, while no change was observed lightly steaming.
when steamed (Gliszczynska-Swiglo et al., 2006). Boiling and
stir-frying/boiling also caused a dramatic loss of vitamin C in broc-
Acknowledgements
coli, which was related to high temperatures, long cooking time,
enzymatic oxidation during the preparation and cooking process
This study was supported by the National Science Foundation of
and frequent stirring that expose the materials to atmospheric oxi-
China (31301574), Natural Science Foundation of Ningbo City
dation (Yadav & Sehgal, 1995). Besides, vitamin C is water soluble,
(2013A610159), National Science and Technology Support
stir-frying and boiling might cause great losses of vitamin C by
Programme (2014BAD04B00) and the Induction of Talent Project
leaching into surrounding water as well. Therefore, using minimal
(ZX2012000031) and the K.C. Wong Magna Fund at Ningbo
cooking water and cooking for shorter time periods resulted in bet-
University.
ter vitamin C retention (Erdman Jr & Klein, 1982).
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