Investigation of Natural Essential Oil Antioxidant Activity on Peroxidase Enzyme in Selected Vegetables

The aim of this work was to study the effect of essential oils as natural antioxidant for inhibition of peroxidase enzyme activity. Peroxidase enzyme is one of the most important enzymes in plant tissue which can bind to hydrogen peroxide and produce an activated complex that can react with a wide range of donor molecules. Therefore inactivation of the enzyme may increase the shelf life of raw and un-blanched frozen vegetables. In order to inactivate of the enzyme several physical and chemical treatments among them heating （blanching）, lowering pH or aw or adding chemical additives can be used, however each of the above mentioned methods has a kind of shortcoming. Our results indicated that crude extract of red cabbage and cabbage has the highest and potato and lettuce has the lowest peroxidase activity respectively （P〈0.05）. Although peroxidase resistance to essential oils varied among different vegetables but clove in all concentration had the best effects in decrease ofperoxidase activity （P〈0.05） whereas cumin and fennel were partially able to reduce the enzyme activity. （P〈0.05）.