Influence of orange cultivar and mandarin postharvest storage on polyphenols, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activity during gastrointestinal digestion

Polyphenols, ascorbic acid content and antioxidant activity of two sweet oranges (Navel-N and Cara Cara-CC) and mandarin (Clementine-M) as well as their bioaccessibilities were evaluated in pulps and compared to those in fresh juice. Thus, pulps of oranges and mandarins displayed higher hesperidin (HES), narirutin (NAR), total flavonoids (TF), total phenols (TP) and antioxidant activity (AAC) than their corresponding juices. Also, CC products presented higher bioactive compounds content than N ones. Bioaccessibility of bioactive compounds and AAC were higher in pulps of both oranges and mandarin than in their corresponding juices. Oranges (N and CC) pulps and juices presented higher bioaccessibilities than mandarin ones. The postharvest storage of mandarin at 12 °C during 5 weeks not only produced a significant increase of the bioactive compounds but also an increase of their bioaccessibility. The bioaccessibility of Citrus bioactive compounds is necessary for calculating more accurately their daily intake amount.This study has been funded by the Spanish Ministry and Competitiveness (MINECO) by the Program Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Fun-C-Food (CSD2007-00063 project) throughout the Biocitrus consortium and by the project AGL2013-46326-R. De Ancos and Sánchez-Moreno are members of the CYTED-red HORTYFRESCO network (113RT0480).Peer Reviewe