Antioxidant and QR Inductive Activities of Novel Functional Soybean ‘Agakong3’

In order to evaluate the bioactivity of ‘Agakong3’, which was newly bred, quinone reductase (QR) inductive activity and antioxidant activity were both assessed. The methanol extract of ‘Agakong3’ showed a significantly stronger QR inductive activity than other soybeans. The methanol extract of ‘Agakong3’ also showed a significantly stronger cytotoxicity on hepa1c1c7 than other soybeans. ‘Agakong3’ exhibited the most potent antioxidant activity in the Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) assay whereas it showed significantly weak antioxidant in the DPPH assay. In total phenol and flavonoid contents, ‘Agakong3’ showed the highest contents regarding phenol and flavonoid compounds. Major isoflavones such as daidzein and genistein were quantitified by high performance liquid chromatography. ‘Agakong3’ also showed the highest total isoflavone contents. Results of correlation analysis showed that there were high correlation coefficients between the contents of isoflavone and TEAC and the contents of isoflavone and QR inductive activity, respectively. These results suggest that ‘Agakong3’ will be a promising and functional food material.