Antioxidative properties and macrochemical composition of five commercial mungbean varieties in Australia

Mungbeans are growing in popularity among Australian consumers, driven by theirbeneficial nutritional and phytochemical composition. However, data on theantioxidative, mineral, and phytochemical content of Australian mungbeans at thepoint of consumer purchase remains scarce. Here, five commercial mungbean sam-ples were analysed for total antioxidant capacity, total phenolics, and total mono-meric anthocyanins. Attenuated total reflectance midinfrared spectroscopy wasutilised as a rapid and reliable method of obtaining information about the mac-rochemical composition of the mungbean hulls. Total antioxidant capacity rangedfrom 170 to 570 mg Trolox equivalents per 100 g, total phenolic content from130 to 240 mg gallic acid equivalents per 100 g, and anthocyanin content from 10 to40 mg cyanidin-3-glucoside equivalents per 100 g. There was a significant differencebetween varieties in all measures of antioxidant, phenolic and anthocyanin contents.Using principal component analysis, the midinfrared spectra for the five mungbeanvarieties could be isolated, highlighting the differences in their phytochemical compo-sition. In general, whole Australian mungbeans appear to have the highest antioxi-dant, phenolic, and anthocyanin contents. Midinfrared spectroscopy appears to be avaluable method of obtaining and comparing the macrochemical composition ofmungbeans. This technology is likely to be of increasing use in the future.