1 © 2019 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. EFFECT OF DOMESTIC COOKING ON PHYSICOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS, PHYTOCHEMICALS AND ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF ALGERIAN TOMATO (Solanum Lycopersicum L. Var. Marmande) Lynda Arkoub- Djermoune 1,2+ Salima Bellili 1 Lamia Khenouce 1 Farida Benmeziane 3 Khodir Madani 1 Lila Boulekbache- Makhlouf 1 1 Laboratory of Biomathematics, Biophysics, Biochemistry and Scientometry, Faculty of Sciences of Nature and Life, Bejaia University, Bejaia (06000), Algeria 2 University of Tizi Ouzou, Faculty of Biological Sciences and Agronomic Sciences, Department of Agronomy, Tizi Ouzou, Algeria 3 Department of Agronomic Sciences, Faculty of Sciences of Nature and Life. Chadli Bendjedid University of El-Tarf. BP 73. El Tarf 36000, Algeria (+ Corresponding author) ABSTRACT Article History Received: 3 January 2019 Revised: 7 February 2019 Accepted: 12 March 2019 Published: 2 April 2019 Keywords Tomato Traditional Cooking Frying Griddling Baking Physicochemical propreties Antioxidant compounds Antioxidant activity. Most of the vegetables are consumed after being cooked. Tomatoes are widely consumed either raw or after processing and can provide a significant proportion of the total antioxidants in the diet. This study was performed to investigate the influence of the traditional cooking methods of Algerian people (frying, griddling and baking) on the physicochemical properties (pH, moisture, acidity, Brix, total sugar, ash and non enzymatic browning index), phytochemicals contents (phenolics, flavonoids, anthocyanins, flavonols vitamin C, carotenoids and lycopene) and the antioxidant activity of tomato (S. lycopersicum) cultivated in Algeria. Cooking treatment affect positively their physicochemical properties (pH, acidity, Brix, total sugar, ash and non- enzymatic browning index) except the moisture content which decreases significantly. After cooking, the number of phenolics, flavonoids and anthocyanins increase significantly, nevertheless vitamin C, carotenoids and lycopene contents decrease for all cooked samples. Finally, DPPH and ABTS free radicals scavenging activities increased in cooked tomato extracts, while a slight decrease was recorded in ferric reducing power (FRP) due to the reduction of vitamin C contents. Consequently, the antioxidant activity of tomato depends on the cooking procedure and griddling, frying seems to be the best cooking way that enhances its antioxidant activity. Contribution/Originality: This study documents for the first time to determine the influence of the traditional cooking methods of Algerian people (frying, griddling and baking) on the physicochemical properties, the phytochemicals contents and the antioxidant activity (DPPH, ABTS and FRP) of Algerian tomato ( S. lycopersicum var. Marmande) used in different food preparation. 1. INTRODUCTION Tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) are one of the most widely used and versatile fruit crops. They are consumed fresh and processed into a wide range of manufactured products (D’sousa et al., 2008). Tomato is an important vegetable crop with an excellent source of many nutrients and secondary metabolites that are important for human health; mineral matter, vitamins C and E, β-carotene, lycopene, lutein flavonoids, organic acids, phenolics and chlorophylls (Giovanelli and Paradiso, 2002; Erge and Karadeniz, 2011; Pinela et al., 2012; Erdinc et al., 2018). Journal of Food Technology Research 2019 Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 1-17 ISSN(e): 2312-3796 ISSN(p): 2312-6426 DOI: 10.18488/journal.58.2019.61.1.17 © 2019 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved.