MCR-ALS and NIRS applied on the evaluation of the Lepidium meyenii antioxidant activity

The Peruvian Maca ( Lepidium Meyenii Walp) is a food which is widely consumed around the Peruvian Andes and has been used in Brazil thanks to medicinal properties attributed by popular culture. Due to lack of information on this cultivar, it was proposed a study to evaluate the effect of adding Peruvian Maca in transgenic soybean oil. For this purpose, the spectra of soybean oil samples with and without addition of Maca after heating at different temperatures were measured at Visible and Near Infrared regions. The results were evaluated by chemometric methods of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Multivariate Curve Resolution with Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS). The results suggest that Maca inhibits the appearance of oxidation products, which is evidenced when comparing the results obtained for the heated oil with and without addition of Maca.