Abstract
This study was conducted to observe antioxidant enzyme activity, iron content and lipid oxidation of Korean native chickens and other poultry. The breast and thigh meat of three Korean native chicken breeds including Woorimatdak, Hyunin black and Yeonsan ogye, and three commercial poultry breeds including the broiler, White Leghorn and Pekin duck (Anasplatyrhyncos domesticus) were studied. The analyses of the antioxidant enzymes activity, iron content and lipid oxidation were performed in raw and cooked samples. The activity of catalase (CAT) in the thigh meat was higher than that of the breast meat of three Korean native chickens and the broiler, respectively. The activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) in the uncooked thigh meat of three Korean native chickens was higher than that of the breasts. The breast meat of Woorimatdak and Pekin duck had higher superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity than the others, while only the thigh meat of Pekin duck had the highest activity. Cooking inactivated CAT and decreased the activity of GPx and SOD. The thigh meat of Woorimatdak, White Leghorn, Yeonsan ogye and Hyunin black contained more total iron than the breast meat of those breeds. The heme-iron lost during cooking ranged from 3.2% to 14.8%. It is noted that the thigh meat had higher thiobarbituric acid reactive substances values than the breast in all chicken breeds. Though Woorimatdak showed higher antioxidant enzyme activity and lower released-iron percentage among Korean native chickens, no differences were found on lipid oxidation. We confirm that the dark meat of poultry exhibited higher antioxidant enzyme activity and contained more iron than the white meat.