The objective of sugarcane harvest is to produce sugarcane stalks with the highest possible sucrose content, ranging from 10 to 15% of the weight of stalks. Most sucrose is stored in the inner portion of the stalks while majority of valuable sugarcane extracts, including antioxidants, concentrate in the outer component (rind fraction) of the stalks.
Sugarcane juice also contains high levels of antioxidants like flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds, which can help reduce oxidative stress and improve human overall health.
Pigments in sugarcane juice are mainly phenolic compounds. The main compounds phenolic composition in sugarcane and its products were phenylpropanoids and flavonoids.
Study on sugarcane extract has displayed a wide range of biological effects including immunostimulation, anti-thrombosis activity, anti-inflammatory activity, vaccine adjuvant, modulation of acetylcholine release and anti-stress effects. Sugarcane juice has broad biological effects in raising innate immunity to infections.
There are thirteen antioxidant compounds have been identified, including several glycosylated phenolic compounds in kokuto (brown sugar of sugar cane in Japan). Some identified compounds exhibited higher antioxidant activity than αtocopherol.
Study indicate that the sugarcane juice of different varieties was effective in giving antioxidant protection at various levels, inhibition of radical formation (by reducing iron complexes), radical scavenging at both primary and secondary stages, and in membrane protection (as assayed by lipid peroxidation). The mechanism involved in many human diseases such as hepatotoxicoties, hepatocarcinogenesis, diabetes, malaria, acute myocardial infarcation, skin cancer includes lipid peroxidation as a main source of membrane damage.
Antioxidants in sugarcane juice
