Total Anti-Oxidant Rankings of Dietary Plants

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There are 3 major methods for measuring anti-oxidant capacity:

FRAP -- Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma

ORAC -- Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity

TEAC -- Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity

Plants rich by one measure of anti-oxidant capacity are

often similarly highly ranked by the other anti-oxidant measures.

The FRAP method is considered suitable for assessment of total

antioxidants in plants. See Francesca's 13 Dec 2003 message

with subject: " More good stuff about legumes and grains " :

> A Systematic Screening of Total Antioxidants in Dietary Plants

> http://www.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/132/3/461

>

In this reference appear some " low shockers " that are abysmally low,

but that many people mistakenly believe are excellent. I do not

mention the poor performers in this message -- just the best ones.

Read the above report, to discover the " low shockers " .

Ranked plant families by richest total anti-oxidants in mmol/100g:

1) berries -- dog rose, crow berry, wild blueberry 39.46 - 8.23

2) nuts & seeds -- walnuts, sunflower seed ........ 20.57 - 5.39

3) fruits -- pomegranate, grape, orange, plum ..... 11.33 - 1.06

4) tubers and roots -- ginger, red beet ....... 3.85 - 1.98

5) dried fruits -- apricot, prune ................. 3.24 - 2.60

6) vegetables -- chili pepper, kale, red cabbage .. 2.46 - 1.88

7) legumes & pulses -- fava beans, pinto beans .... 1.86 - 1.14

8) grains and cereals -- barley, millet, oats ..... 1.09 - 0.59

Legumes and Grains had the poorest total anti-oxidant power.

Berries, nuts, seeds, and fruits had the best total anti-oxidant power.

Walnuts were a particular high-ranking surprise.

The highest top dozen ranking foods, all with FRAP anti-oxidant power

greater than 5.00 mmol/100g were in the following order:

# 1) dog rose

# 2) walnuts

# 3) pomegranates

# 4) crowberry

# 5) wild blueberry/bilberry

# 6) blackberry

# 7) sour cherry

# 8) wild blackberry

# 9) wild strawberry

#10) sunflower seed

#11) cultivated blackberry

#12) cowberry/cranberry.

It may be worthwhile for somebody to publish a list of some of the

poorest performance " low shockers " that are commonly believed

to be excellent (esp in the nut categories), but which disappoint.

-- Warren