Find in Library

Lactic acid bacteria can provide benefits to human beings and transform phenolic substances to improve their potential functionality. It was of interest to develop black barley as a carrier of probiotics and nutraceutical supplement rich in more antioxidants. Due to fermentation, bacterial counting and free phenolic content in black barley increased to 9.54 ± 0.22 log cfu/mL and 5.61 ± 0.02 mg GAE/mL, respectively. Eleven phenolic compounds, including nine isoflavones and two nitrogenous compounds were characterized using UPLC-QTOF-MS, among which epicatechin, hordatine, and pelargonidin aglycone were largely enriched. Moreover, free phenolic extracts from fermented barley (F-BPE) played a greater role in scavenging DPPH radicals, reducing Fe3+ to Fe2+, and increasing oxygen radical absorbance capacity, compared phenolic extracts from unfermented barley [UF-BPE (1.94-, 1.71-, and 1.35-fold at maximum for F-BPE vs. UF-BPE, respectively)]. In hepatocarcinoma cells, F-BPE also better inhibited ROS production and improved cell viability, cell membrane integrity, SOD activity, and non-enzymatic antioxidant GSH redox status (2.85-, 3.28-, 2.05-, 6.42-, and 3.99-fold at maximum for F-BPE vs. UF-BPE, respectively).