Comparison of Germination-Parboiling, Freeze-Thaw Cycle and High Pressure Processing on Phytochemical Content and Antioxidant Activity in Brown Rice Evaluated after Cooking and In-Vitro Digestion

Three treatments, namely germination-parboiling (PG), freeze-thaw cycle (FTC) and high pressure processing (HPP) were compared for phytochemical content and antioxidant activity of brown rice (BR). These were determined in raw (uncooked), cooked, and in-vitro digested BR and compared with those from untreated BR and white rice (WR). PG showed the highest retention of phytochemicals after cooking (87–100%) while it dropped to 59–72% with FTC and 64–76% with HPP. After in-vitro digestion, the highest amount of phenolics was found in PG-24 h and flavonoids in FTC for two cycles. The antioxidant activity, as determined by oxygen radical absorbance capacity and ABTS methods, showed the highest value to be associated with in-vitro digested sample of PG-24 h, and lowest in WR. The results of this study show that these three treatments could improve or retain the phenolic content and antioxidant activity in cooked BR after in-vitro digestion.