Development of black garlic yakju and its antioxidant activity

Abstract

Black garlic has recently received significant attention due to its various health functional properties, and there has been an increase in demand for its use as a functional food. This study was performed to determine the optimum concentration for the fermentation of black garlic yakju. In addition, the antioxidant activity of the fermented black garlic yakju was examined. The alcohol content in the black garlic yakju significantly increased for 6 days and the pH gradually increased as the concentration of black garlic increased. The reducing sugar content at each black garlic concentration was maximal when it was fermented for 24 hours, and then rapidly decreased at longer fermentation periods. The main organic acids were lactic, citric, malic and oxalic acid. Also, the lactic acid content increased as the concentration of the black garlic increased where as the content of other organic acids decreased. The total polyphenol content, ferric ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) activity and DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl) free radical scavenging activity of black garlic yakju increased as the concentration of black garlic increased. The sensory characteristics of fermented black garlic yakju were evaluated in terms of color, flavor, taste and overall acceptability, and the highest overall acceptability value was obtained for yakju containing a black garlic concentration of 1-3%. Therefore, the optimum concentration of black garlic was determined to be 1% for the production of high quality black garlic yakju. ? The Korean Society of Food Science and Technology.