Antioxidant Effects of Coffee Melanoidins

September 11, 2009 - We've all heard about the beneficial effects in drinking coffee and its ability to prevent the onset of numerous diseases.But what exactly is it in coffee that provides us with these beneficial effects?

According to researchers chlorogenic acid and the formation of brown-colored melanoidins is what most responsible for coffee's tremendous "antioxidant capacity".

Although these compounds exist in pre-roasted coffee (ie green coffee), the vast majority are formed during the roasting process. But not all coffee provides the same level of antioxidant capacity - as shown in Fig 1 - those coffee that have been decaffeinated/mild or rendered "soluble" have significantly less antioxidant capacity than regular drip coffee.

Figure 1: Antioxidant Capacity by Coffee Type

Although the terms "strong taste" and "medium' were used in the study, our guess is that this was simply the author's expression of the coffee's concentration and not so much an expression of roast level (ie. strong meaning a coffee with a darker roast)...

So why would decaf and soluble coffee has lower antioxidant capacity? Well turns out that the additional processing - eg. steaming, spray drying, etc - destroy antioxidants contained in coffee and render is less beneficial.

What was interesting to see in the study, is that when compared to data showing roasting temperatures, those coffees roasted to 220^oC (428^oF) showed the greatest concentration of antioxidants than those roasted to 217^oC (422.6^oF) and 228^oC (442.4^oF) - suggesting an optimal roasting profile. Interesting......unroasted coffee was also compared as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Antioxidant Capacity by Roasting Bean Temperature

So there you go a basic discussion of coffee antioxidants. But Im sure many of you now may now have more questions than answers, so feel free to leave your comments/questions below (or on Facebook).

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