Abstract
Lipophilic brown pigments produced during the fermentation of domestic Meju and Doenjang were fractionated by column and thin -layer chromatography (TLC). Each of the fractions was tested for the antioxidant activity and then characterized by spectroscopic analysis. The lipophilic brown pigments were separated into chloroform -soluble and methanol-soluble parts in which Meju resulted the higher content of chloroform-soluble part than that of methanol-soluble part ; however, Doenjang exhibited the opposite result to that of Meju. More strong antioxidant activity was found in the methanol-soluble part than the chloroform-soluble part. Four and five fractions were separated from chloroform-soluble and methanol-soluble parts respectively. by silicagel TLC. The fraction that exhibited the high antioxidant activity showed a strong absorption at 260nm caused by amino compounds in UV spectrum The other fractions which did not have antioxidant activity absorbed at 240nm by carbonic acid and it ester,. IR spectrum of each fraction commonly showed absorption at 3400cm-1 , 2800cm-1 , 1700cm-1, 1600cm-1, 1400cm-1 , 1300cm-1 and 1100cm-1. Especially , the fraction which had a strong antioxidant activity showed absorption at 2800cm-1, 1400cm-1, 1600cm-1 suggesting that the fraction contain Schiff's base and primary amine structure.