Caracterización de derivados de piña: zumos y néctares

Dada la gran proliferación en nuestros mercados de los derivados de piña: zumos y néctares, y la escasa bibliografía científica existente sobre el tema, hemos considerado de interés caracterizarlos mediante la determinación de su composición química; estudio objetivo de los caracteres organolépticos; estudio de compuestos ajenos a la composición de la piña fresca y estudio de la influencia del tiempo de almacenamiento en la composición de zumos comerciales. La aplicación de diversos estudios estadísticos (análisis de la varianza, correlaciones y análisis de componentes principales) a los resultados obtenidos nos permite seleccionar el contenido en ácido l-málico, la relación fructosa/glucosa y el contenido mineral, como parámetros más útiles para el control de pureza de estos producto

Traditional pastry with chestnut flowers as natural ingredients: an approach of the effects on nutritional value and chemical composition

Portuguese traditional pastry known as económicos with satiating qualities, have been elaborated with chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) flowers and their decoctions. The complete nutritional profile, mineral content, free sugars, organic and fatty acids, and tocopherols were determined immediately after baking and also after 15 and 30 days of storage. The results were processed through a 2 way ANOVA, followed by a linear discriminant analysis to conclude that only slight effects were detected even in the assayed parameters, after 30 days. The amount of water decreased with time, resulting in a raise of ash, carbohydrates, energy and insoluble fiber over time. In terms of organic acids, succinic acid was the most abundant molecules, with the samples incorporated with the decoction showing the highest amounts of these acids. Sucrose was the highest sugar, although a decrease was detected overtime. Sodium and potassium were the most abundant minerals while zinc was the least. Finally, α-tocopherol was the most abundant isoform of tocopherols and palmitic acid the most abundant fatty acid. Polyunsaturated fatty acids tended to decrease along storage time. The use of dried flowers seemed to better preserve the original profile (control) of the económicos in comparison with the decoctions.The authors are grateful to M. Ferreira e Filhas, Lda. (Pão de Gimonde) for the cakes recipe, and to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support to the CIMO research centre (Pest-OE/AGR/UI0690/2011) and ALIMNOVA research group (UCM-GR35/10A), J.C.M. Barreira post-doctoral grant (BPD/72802/2010) and L. Barros’ research contract (“Compromisso para a Ciência 2008”)

Fatty acids profiles of some Spanish wild vegetables

Polyunsaturated fatty acids play an important role in human nutrition, being associated with several health benefits. The analyzed vegetables, in spite of his low fat content, lower than 2 %, presents a high proportion of PUFA of n-3, n-6 and n-9 series, such as α-linolenic, linoleic, and oleic acids, respectively. Wild edible plants contain in general a good balance of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids. The present study tries to contribute to the preservation and valorization of traditional food resources, studying the fatty acids profile of twenty wild vegetables by GC-FID. Results show that species in which leaves are predominant in their edible parts have in general the highest PUFA/SFA ratios: Rumex pulcher (5.44), Cichorium intybus (5.14) and Papaver rhoeas (5.00). Due to the low n-6/n-3 ratios of the majority of the samples, they can be considered interesting sources of n-3 fatty acids, especially those with higher total fat amount, such as Bryonia dioica, Chondrilla juncea or Montia fontana, with the highest contents of α-linolenic acid (67.78, 56.27 and 47.65%, respectively). The wild asparaguses of Asparagus acutifolius and Tamus communis stand out for their linoleic acid content (42.29 and 42.45%, respectively). All these features reinforce the interest of including wild plants in diet, as an alternative to the variety of vegetables normally used

Tocopherol composition and antioxidant activity of Spanish wild vegetables

Traditional use of noncultivated vegetables has decreased with the development of agriculture and global supply chains. However, some species are still consumed as part of our traditional Mediterranean diet. Plants are among the most important sources of natural antioxidants for retarding lipid oxidative rancidity in foods or for pharmaceutical applications against chronic diseases related to free radicals production. The present study reports tocopherols composition and antioxidant activity of eight wild greens traditionally used in Spain. According to the edible part consumed, two groups were differentiated. Leafy vegetables whose young stems with leaves are consumed (Apium nodiflorum (L.) Lag., Foeniculum vulgare Mill., Montia fontana L. and Silene vulgaris (Moench) Garcke), and wild asparagus whose young shoots with leaf buds scarcely developed are eaten (Asparagus acutifolius L., Bryonia dioica Jacq., Humulus lupulus L. and Tamus communis L.). Among the leafy vegetables, Silene vulgaris and Apium nodiflorum presented the highest antioxidant capacity and antioxidants contents. Among the wild asparagus, the highest antioxidant capacity was obtained in Humulus lupulus

Nutritional and Phytochemical Composition of MediterraneanWild Vegetables after Culinary Treatment

Studies are scarce on the nutritional and phytochemical composition of wild edible Mediterranean plants after culinary processing. This work provides the nutritional composition after culinary treatment (including dietary fiber and mineral composition) and bioactive compounds (folates, vitamin C and organic acids) of wild Rumex pulcher L., Silene vulgaris (Moench) Garcke. leaves, and wild Asparagus acutifolius L., Bryonia dioica Jacq., Humulus lupulus L., Tamus communis L. young shoots. Shoots better preserved their nutrients than leaves, due to their different tissue structure. Fresh and cooked wild greens present high dietary fiber values, and remained at remarkable levels after boiling. Na, K, Mg and Zn were lost in about 50% due to culinary processing, while Ca, Cu, Fe and Mn were more stable. Boiled leaves of S. vulgaris remained as a good Mn source. A portion of 100 g of most of the cooked analyzed species could cover a relevant percentage of the daily requirement of folates (R. pulcher and A. acutifolius providing more than 80%) and vitamin C (T. communis and A. acutifolius providing more than 35%)

Revalorization of Tunisian wild Amaranthaceae halophytes: Nutritional composition variation at two different phenotypes stages

Wild halophytes are traditionally consumed in Tunisia as gourmet vegetables due to their salty taste and organoleptic proprieties. However, their nutritional composition is not deeply studied. The aim of this study was to characterize three Tunisian wild halophytic species (Arthrocnemum indicum (Willd.) Moq, Halocnemum strobilaceum (Pall.) M. Bieb., and Suaeda fruticosa Forssk) at two different phenotypic stages according to the seasonal variation. Amaranthaceae, is one of the well spread halophytes family shrubs in the world, mainly in Mediterranean countries. The studied wild halophytes are an interesting source of nutrients and could be considered as healthy foods with high levels of dietary fibers (7.63–10.14 g/100 g fw), protein (2.45–4.14 g/100 g fw), n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in green phenotypic stage (29.87 %–40.5 %) and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in red-violet phenotypic stage (25.4 %–75.26 %), with particular relevance to linolenic acid content (20.7 %–75.22 %). These halophytes are also a good source of minerals, particularly sodium, calcium, potassium and magnesium, as well as vitamins C and E, with a major abundance of α-tocopherol.The authors are grateful to the ALIMNOVA Research group (UCM GR105/18) for financial support, as well as to Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programmer PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2019). C. Pereira contract through the celebration of program-contract foreseen in No. 4, 5 and 6 of article 23º of Decree-Law No. 57/2016, of 29th August, amended by Law No. 57/2017, of 19th July.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

New developments in lycopene analysis by spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques, accompanied by mathematical modelling

Comunicación Oral sobre los resultados obtenidos en el estudio de las propiedades del lycopeno presente en el tomate como compuesto bioactivo. Se realizó la identificación y cuantificación por diferentes metodologías experimentales. Se muestran los resultados analíticos comapartivamente con distintas técnicas

Lentil flour formulations to develop new snack-type products by extrusion processing: phytochemicals and antioxidant capacity

Extrusion process has been generally applied to the production of cereal-based snacks. However, in recent years, extrusion process has been also used for the development of pulses-based snacks, with few studies focussing on the incorporation of these food ingredients to obtain bioactive compounds enriched snacks with acceptable quality. The effects of the extrusion processing on fiber (soluble and insoluble), total available carbohydrates, tocopherols, organic acids, total phenolics, hydroxycinnamic acids, hydroxybenzoic acids and flavonols, as well as on the antioxidant capacity of different lentil-based, fiber-enriched flours were evaluated. Total dietary fiber (TDF) in the extruded flours ranged between 7.49 and 10.22 g/100 g, with a decrease from 6 to 37% which correlated with a significant increase in the fiber soluble fraction. α-, γ- and δ-Tocopherols were characterized in all the analyzed samples, being γ-tocopherol the major isoform, before and after extrusion. Additionally, a marked decrease of 83 to 94% in total tocopherol content after extrusion processing was observed and the decrease was more significant on quinic acid content. Conversely, an increase in most polyphenolic fractions was observed, probably due to the effect of extrusion process to induce hydrolysis of polyphenols bound fiber and/or proteins moieties, changing from non-extractable to extractable polyphenols. Similar increase in antioxidant activity was also observed in most formulated lentil-based flours, measured by four different antioxidant assays. Only flavonols presented an extensive content decrease of about 62 to 82%, after extrusion treatment.The authors are grateful to ALIMNOVA research group (UCM-GR35/10A) and to the CIMO research centre (Pest-OE/AGR/UI0690/2014) for financial support, and L. Barros’ research contract (“Compromisso para a Ciência 2008”)

Wild Fragaria vesca L. fruits: a rich source of bioactive phytochemicals

Wild Fragaria vesca L. fruits were studied regarding nutritional and phytochemical compounds, and also antioxidant, antibacterial and biofilm formation inhibition activities. The fruits are good sources of carbohydrates (e.g., sucrose), soluble dietary fiber and polyunsaturated fatty acids, mainly linoleic and linolenic acids, as well as other components such as citric and succinic acids, and vitamins B9 and E (mainly γ-tocopherol). Significant amounts of soluble sugars, citric acid and some amounts of ascorbic acid, vitamins B9 and E (only α-tocopherol) were found also in the infusions. The hydromethanolic extracts revealed higher amounts of phenolic compounds, mainly ellagic acid derivatives and dihydroflavonol taxifolin-3-O-arabinofuranoside. Consistently, these extracts also showed higher antioxidant and antibacterial activities than the infusions, and were able to inhibit the formation of bacterial biofilms. Despite the lower content of bioactive compounds in the infusions compared to the fruits, both forms could be potentially applied in functional foods and/or nutraceuticals/pharmaceutical formulations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio