Study on antioxidative activities of the germinated soybean and its tofu product
For improving the functionality of the soybean and its products, the soybean was germinated, and the antioxidative activities of germinated soybean and its product tofu were investigated in this study by using the ABTS method and DPPH method. The results showed the ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging activities in the water extracts of germinated soybean and its product tofu were higher than that of the raw soybean seed and its product tofu. Furthermore, the radical scavenging activity increased along with the increasing of germination time. However, this trend was not observed in the 80% EtOH extracts. It indicated that germination can significantly increase the antioxidative activities of soybean and its product tofu. The components of the water extracts contributed to the antioxidative activities was probably from polypeptides, water-soluble vitamins and other substances that accumulated during germination process.