FULL-LENGTH RESEARCH ARTICLE High-Resolution LCMS Profiling of Phenolic Compounds of Indian Black Carrot and Evaluation of Its Effect on Antioxidant Defense and Glucose Metabolism in Animal Model Tanmay Kumar Koley 1 • Shivani Srivastava 2 • Y. B. Tripathi 2 • Kaushik Banerjee 3 • Dasharath Oulkar 3 • Arnab Goon 3 • Ajay Tripathi 1 • Bijendra Singh 1 Received: 27 March 2018 / Accepted: 11 September 2018 Ó NAAS (National Academy of Agricultural Sciences) 2018 Abstract Black carrot (Daucus carota L. ssp. sativus var. atrorubens Alef.), an indigenous vegetable of India, has been widely used for the preparation of traditional fermented product Kanji, and traditional medicine for treating various kinds of diseases. Although previous research has reported its biochemical composition and some in vitro functional properties, very scanty information is available to date on the in vivo effect of black carrot. Given this gap of knowledge, this study was aimed to investigate the effect of black carrot on antioxidant defense, glucose metabolism and renal, as well as hepatic toxicity in normal Charles Foster albino rats. In addition, secondary metabolites were identified by high-resolution LCMS and in vitro antioxidant activity was also assessed. LC/MS/MS analysis revealed the presence of nine anthocyanins and two flavonols. Among these, four new compounds were putatively identified for the first time. Under in vivo condition, feeding of black carrot juice for 30 days resulted in the reduction in the superoxide dismutase activity, both in dose- and time- dependent manner. It was also observed that feeding of rats with black carrot juice for 30 days reduced their blood triglyceride concentration, both in dose- and time-dependent manners. No significant effect was observed on plasma glucose concentration, and also, no toxicity was noted with regard to the functioning of the kidney and liver. Keywords Black carrot Á LCMS Á In vivo Á Antioxidant defense Á Glucose metabolism Introduction The importance of functional food has been increasing among consumers since they are blended with a specific group of bioactive compounds or nutraceuticals, which enable them to prevent or delay the onset of chronic life- style disease. Among various naturally occurring nutraceuticals, plant phenolics, including flavonoids and anthocyanins, have received special attention due to their versatile role in human health viz., anti-inflammatory, anti- allergic [21], hepatoprotective, anti-atherosclerotic, anti- thrombotic, anti-viral [18], anti-carcinogenic [24], and others. Black carrot (Daucus carota L. ssp. sativus var. atror- ubens Alef.) has very high levels of phenolic compounds which can be used as functional food to prevent or cure various lifestyle diseases [9, 12, 13]. More than forty phenolic acids have been identified in black carrot so far; among them, 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid is the predominant compound. Besides, several ferulic acid and caffeic acid derivatives, a few hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives, and one quercetin glycoside were also identified in black carrots [11]. Two non-acylated anthocyanins: cyanidin-3- xylosyl(glucosyl)galactoside and cyanidin-3-xylosylgalac- toside, as well as three mono-acylated anthocyanins, including cyanidin 3-xylosyl(sinapoyl-glucosyl)galac- toside, cyanidin-3-xylosyl(feruloyl-glucosyl)galactoside, & Tanmay Kumar Koley tanmay.iari@gmail.com 1 ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi, India 2 Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Institute of Medical Sciences, BHU, Varanasi, India 3 National Referral Laboratory, ICAR-National Research Centre on Grapes, Pune, India 123 Agric Res https://doi.org/10.1007/s40003-018-0389-4