Profiling of phenolic and other compounds from Egyptian cultivars of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and antioxidant activity: a comparative study

Chickpeas are basic food in many countries with several cultivars distributed all over the world. However, little is known about their secondary metabolites. Thus, this work is focused on the study of the phenolic profiles of seven Egyptian cultivars of chickpea. Selecting the most appropriate extraction method and analytical conditions using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection, with a core-shell column, and coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (MS), a total of 96 phenolic compounds were characterized based on their retention time, UV spectra, and accurate MS and MS2 data. Among them, the major phenolic subclasses were hydroxybenzoic acids and flavonoids. Moreover, other minor and major metabolites including organic acids, amino acids, nucleosides, peptides and soyasaponins were characterized. Using standards, 22 compounds were unequivocally identified. Remarkably, 88 of these compounds were tentatively reported for the first time in chickpeas. The total phenol content of the cultivars was determined as well as the antioxidant activity by the trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity assay.