Changes in the content and composition of anthocyanins in red cabbage and its antioxidant capacity during fermentation, storage and stewing
Introduction
Anthocyanins content and profile as well as antioxidant capacity of both fruits and vegetables strongly depend on genetic and environmental conditions, however food processing and storage conditions also constitute major influential factors. Fruits and vegetables are often subjected to various types of processing in order to obtain more suitable and attractive food products, as well as to achieve longer and stable storage capacity. It has to be noted however that during treatment the stability of anthocyanins is dependent on their structure, plants’ matrix and the process environment. Temperature, length of the process, presence of oxygen, light, plant enzymes and microorganism activities, as well as accompanying substances and pH value affect the half-life of anthocyanins (Clifford, 2000).
Anthocyanins are characterised by complex patterns of hydroxylation, methoxylation, glycosylation, and acylation (Wu & Prior, 2005). These factors are linked to plant species to form a characteristic pattern of anthocyanins. Glycosylation and acylation of anthocyanins raise their stability through intra-molecular and/or inter-molecular co-pigmentation, and self-association reactions (Bąkowska-Barczak, 2005). Therefore, acylated anthocyanins with a high degree of glycosylation being a source of colour and bioactivity may maintain the desired stability during food processing.
Anthocyanins are absorbed by humans in the aglycone, glucosidic and acylated forms (Charron, Clevidence, Britz, & Novotny, 2007). It has been indicated that anthocyanins consumed do not have any toxic, teratogenic and mutagenic properties even at high doses of these compounds (Clifford, 2000). The intake of anthocyanins has been considered to exert a beneficial effect on human health (Zafra-Stone et al., 2007), however mechanisms of this action have not been entirely explained. These natural red colourants have been demonstrated to have anticancer, cardioprotective, antineurodegenerative, vision improving and diabetes preventing activities (De Pascual-Teresa & Sanchez-Ballesta, 2008).
Red cabbage is gaining popularity all over the world and is eaten raw and after both technological and home treatment. Red cabbage is an attractive for consumers not only because of its crucial dietetic and taste values, but also its intense purple/red colour. It has been indicated that anthocyanins are responsible for formation of this colour. As was presented in the previous study (Podsedek, 2007), anthocyanins are one of the major groups of phytochemicals in red cabbage. The concentration of anthocyanins in red cabbage is relatively large and varies significantly in plants grown in different years. From nine to thirty-six different anthocyanin derivatives have been detected in various red cabbages. Among them, a large number occurs in acylated forms. Red cabbage varieties are characterised by a specific and individual profile of anthocyanins (Charron et al., 2007, Pliszka et al., 2009, Wu and Prior, 2005). In addition, in the previous work, it has been found that red cabbage has its own characteristic antioxidant capacity where the kind of acylation affects the antioxidant activity of acylated anthocyanins (Wiczkowski, Szawara-Nowak, & Topolska, 2013). Published reports prove that red cabbage is considered to be a vegetable of a considerably high antioxidant activity (Hassimotto et al., 2005, Wu et al., 2004).
Taking the above into account, measurement of anthocyanins content and determination of their profile appearing in products after treatment are essential requirements for exploring the fate of anthocyanins during processing, as well as for development of suitable procedures to reduce the degradation of these red natural compounds. Examination of the manner in which red cabbage is processed and consumed has to be accompanied by the consideration of its role in preventing diseases and obtaining maximum health effects. We have therefore investigated the effects of fermentation, storage and stewing processes on the red cabbage anthocyanin concentration and antioxidant activity. The composition of individual red cabbage anthocyanins in fresh, fermented and stewed products by means of HPLC-DAD and HPLC-MS/MS methods was also determined. Five different assays were used for determination of antioxidant capacity in red cabbage products.
Section snippets
Reagents
2,2′-Azobis(2-amidopropane) hydrochloride (AAPH), 2,2′-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and 6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid (Trolox) were purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO). Sodium fluorescein was obtained from Fluka (Buchs, Switzerland). ACW (hydrophilic condition) and ACL (lipophilic condition) kits (model no. 400.801) for the photochemiluminescence (PCL)
The profile of red cabbage anthocyanin
Anthocyanins in red cabbage products were analysed using HPLC-DAD-MS/MS method. The identification of anthocyanins was carried out by means of the comparison of their retention time, UV–Vis and MS/MS spectra, and the previous data (Charron et al., 2007, Wiczkowski et al., 2013). As presented in Fig. 1 and Table 2, anthocyanin profiles of red cabbage products obtained in this study is characterised by twenty derivatives of cyanidin with the main structure of cyanidin-3-diglucoside-5-glucosides.
Conclusion
The results indicated that all red cabbage processing applied reduced the content of anthocyanins in the products obtained. However, it is necessary to emphasise that the extent of respective losses depended on the kind of the processing introduced. Among individual red compounds found in red cabbage products, acylated with sinapic acid derivatives of cyanidin-3-diglucoside-5-glucoside were characterised by the highest losses. Contrary, the lowest rate of decrease was noted for nonacylated
Acknowledgement
The research was supported by the National Science Centre (Poland, project 1902/B/P01/2008/35).
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