Abstract: To investigate the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) values and antioxidant capacity of different varieties of sweet cherry fruit, Napoleon, Lapins, Sato Nishiki, Rainier, Hongdeng were used as materials to determine the content of the 3 antioxidants (total phenolics, total flavonoids and total flavanols).The antioxidant activities of 3 different mechanisms were evaluated in terms of the antioxidant activity of sweet cherry fruits, including ABTS^.+ radical scavenging capacity (ABTS), DPPH radical scavenging capacity (DPPH), and iron ion reducing ability (FRAP).The results showed that differences were found among different varieties. Red-fleshed sweet cherry varieties Hongdeng and Lapins owned higher a^* value and lower b^* value, while the yellow-fleshed varieties were on the contrary, and Napoleon had the highest L^* value. Hongdeng had the highest content of antioxidant compounds and also had the highest antioxidant capacity, while the yellow-fleshed varieties Sato Nishiki and Napoleon were the lowest. Moreover, significant or extremely significant positive correlations were found between total phenolics (TPC), total flavonoids (TFC) and each bioactive compound, and significant positive correlation was found between total flavanols (TFAC) and ABTS. All of these results suggested that red-fleshed sweet cherries contained high antioxidants, and Hongdeng is a promising hygienical function for human nutrition.

Key words: sweet cherry, antioxidant active components, antioxidant capacity, radical scavenging