Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism Volume 2010, Article ID 173274, 9 pages doi:10.1155/2010/173274 Research Article The Role of Polyphenols, β-Carotene, and Lycopene in the Antioxidative Action of the Extracts of Dried, Edible Mushrooms A. Robaszkiewicz,1 G. Bartosz,1, 2 M. Ławrynowicz,3 and M. Soszynski´ 1 1 Department of Molecular Biophysics, University of Ł´od´z, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 Ł´od´z, Poland 2 Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University of Rzesz´ow, St. Pigonia 6, 35-959 Rzesz´ow, Poland 3 Department of Mycology, University of Ł´od´z, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 Ł´od´z, Poland Correspondence should be addressed to A. Robaszkiewicz,
[email protected] Received 17 August 2010; Accepted 16 November 2010 Academic Editor: Parul Christian Copyright © 2010 A. Robaszkiewicz et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. One of the nutritional benefits of mushrooms is the presence of bioactive secondary metabolites which have been reported to exert various beneficial effects in vivo. Therefore, we selected thirteen frequently consumed species of Polish mushrooms and determined the concentration of polyphenols, flavonoids, β-carotene, and lycopene in aqueous and methanolic extracts of dried fruiting bodies as well as their reducing power and ability to scavenge ABTS cation radical. We found that the concentration of antioxidants is different in different species and in various parts of the fruiting body of mushrooms.