0139–3006 © 2017 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest Acta Alimentaria, Vol. 46 (4), pp. 501–507 (2017) DOI: 10.1556/066.2017.46.4.13 PHENOLICS CONTENT AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF SOUR CHERRY EXTRACTS WITH SUGAR ADDITION M. KOPJAR a *, D. ALILOVIĆ b , T. POŽRL c , V. PILIŽOTA a and A. PICHLER a a Faculty of Food Technology, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Franje Kuhača 20, 31000 Osijek. Croatia b Faculty of Agronomy and Food Technology, University of Mostar; Biskupa Čule bb, 88000 Mostar. Bosnia and Hercegovina c Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana. Slovenia (Received: 10 February 2017; accepted: 27 March 2017) Sour cherry puree was prepared with addition of sucrose or trehalose (5% and 10%). After stabilization of the mixture (puree with sugars), extracts were prepared and contents of phenolics and anthocyanin, polymeric colour percentage, and antioxidant activity were determined. Extracts were stored for 65 days at 4 °C. Control sample was extract of sour cherry puree without sugars. After extraction, extracts with 10% of sucrose or trehalose had higher phenolic content than the control sample. Anthocyanin content was higher in extracts with trehalose addition. During storage of extracts, samples with trehalose had higher retention of phenolic and anthocyanins than other samples. Addition of sucrose and trehalose as well as their amounts affected the stabilities of phenolics, anthocyanins, and antioxidant activity in sour cherry extracts. Keywords: sour cherry extracts, sucrose, trehalose, phenolics, anthocyanins Very often, extraction of the valuable compounds is conducted for their preservation and further utilisation in products. It is well known that phenolics, secondary metabolites, play a very important part in the quality of foods either through impact on the sensory characteristics or nutrition value of the product. Phenolics are known for beneficial effects on the human health. Their positive effect is ascribed to their antioxidant potential due to their possibility of acting as chain breakers or radical scavengers, which depends on their chemical structure (CHUNG et al., 1998; RICE-EVANS, 2001; CHEYNIER, 2005; EL GHARRAS, 2009). Phenols, as fruit constituents, are also important for their effect on colour, taste, and nutritional properties of fruit and their products (CHEYNIER, 2005). Anthocyanins are a group of pigments of characteristic flavonoid structure with colour ranging from red to violet, depending on the source plant. They play critical role in the evaluation of the colour quality of many fruit and their products, but, unfortunately, they are very unstable during processing and under storage conditions (STINTZING & CARLE, 2004). Due to their very attractive colour, they can be used as colorants instead of synthetic ones, and at the same time, they have antioxidant properties. As phenolics are important constituents of foods, it is important to preserve them also in extracts that could be used as additives to processed foods, processed beverages, herbal products, dietary supplements, and functional foods. In this study, influence of sugars on the stability of the phenolics and anthocyanins in the sour cherry extracts during storage was examined. Sucrose is a disaccharide that is commonly used in food industry. Trehalose is also a disaccharide that is getting more attention in food industry every day. Trehalose and sucrose * To whom correspondence should be addressed. Phone: +38531224300; fax: +38531207115; e-mail: Mirela.Kopjar@ptfos.hr