Abstract:
Comprehensively compiled dietary polyphenol data is required to compare polyphenol
content between foods, calculate polyphenol intake and study its association with health and disease.
The purpose of this review was to identify data on the presence and content of polyphenolic components
in South African foods, with the aim of compiling the data into a database. An electronic
literature search was conducted up until January 2020 using multiple databases. Additional literature
was sourced from South African university repositories. A total of 7051 potentially eligible references
were identified, of which 384 met the inclusion criteria. These studies provided information on food
item name, geographical distribution, polyphenol type, quantity, and quantification method. Data
for 1070 foods were identified, amounting to 4994 polyphenols. Spectrophotometry was the main
method used for quantification of gross phenolic content in various assays such as total phenolic
content (Folin–Ciocalteu assay), total flavonoid content (AlCl3 assay) and condensed tannin content
(vanillin–HCl assay). Phenolic acids and flavonoids were the main polyphenol classes identified.
This review highlights that South Africa has abundant information on the polyphenol content of
foods, which could be utilised within a food composition database for the estimation of polyphenol
intake for South Africa.
