Geographical Location has Greater Impact on Carotenoid Content and Bioaccessibility from Tomatoes than Variety

Abstract

The suggested health benefits of consuming tomatoes and tomato-based products have been attributed, in part, to the carotenoids present in these foods. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were to (i) analyse carotenoid content and bioaccessibility from different tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) types namely cherry, plum, round, and certain tomatoes-on-the-vine; and (ii) determine if geographical location (Ireland vs Spain) influenced the content and bioaccessibility of carotenoids in tomatoes of the same variety. Carotenoid bioaccessibility is defined as the amount of ingested carotenoids that, after digestion, are available for absorption by intestinal cells. Differences were seen in carotenoid content and bioaccessibility between the different tomato types tested. For instance, Irish round high-lycopene tomatoes contained the greatest amounts of lycopene and lutein but lowest levels of beta-carotene compared with the other Irish tomatoes. Furthermore, the content and bioaccessibility of carotenoids that were sourced from Ireland and Spain also varied greatly. Spanish tomatoes were generally superior in the content, bioaccessibility, and micelle content of carotenoids. To conclude, our findings suggest that geographical location, rather than the type of tomato, seems to have a more pronounced effect on carotenoid bioaccessibility from tomatoes.

Carotenoid Content of Commonly Consumed Herbs and Assessment of Their Bioaccessibility Using an In Vitro Digestion Model

“…The in vitro digestion model was performed using the method of Garrett et al [18] with minor modifications as previously described [16]. Briefly, digestion was carried out by acidifying the homogenized samples to pH 2 using porcine pepsin (0.04 g/ml HCl) followed by incubation at 37°C in a Grant OLS 200 orbital shaking water bath (Grant Instruments, Cambridge, UK) for 1 h. After this simulated gastric digestion, sample pH was increased to 5.3 using 0.9M NaHCO 3 followed by the addition of glycodeoxycholate (0.80 mM final concentration), taurodeoxycholate (0.45 mM final concentration), taurocholate (0.75 mM final concentration), pancreatin (0.08 g/ml), and cholesterol esterase (1 U/ml).…”

“…Consequently, in addition to knowing the carotenoid content of foods, it is important to obtain information on how much of these phytochemicals are actually available, after digestion, for absorption in the intestine, i.e. how much is bioaccessible [16]. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no published studies on the bioaccessibility of carotenoids from herbs.…”

“…Therefore, in the present paper, we applied a simulated in vitro human digestion model to determine the bioaccessibility of carotenoids from herbs. This model has been used extensively throughout research laboratories worldwide [16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

Inclusion and Exclusion in Nutrigenetics Clinical Research: Ethical and Scientific Challenges

“…First, the micronutrient content and bioaccessibility of studied foodstuffs may vary considerably, depending notably on the place where such foods are grown [e.g. [57,58,59,60]]. Second, the methods of diagnosis and management of diseases that are studied in nutrigenetics research may vary from one country to another, and such differences in clinical practice may impact the external validity of clinical studies [61].…”

“…16%; see table 1) are particularly uninformative about the participants’ origins and sometimes even troubling, such as was the case in 2 publications [69,79] in which ‘women with non-German nationality’ were explicitly excluded from the study, or where all participants were described as being ‘born in Denmark’. Another example of striking ambiguity, found in 2 publications [60,86], is the breakdown of the participants into a ‘Jewish’ group and a ‘Caucasian/white’ one, as if such groups were necessarily distinct.…”