Phytochemical Characterization of Commercial Processed Blueberry, Blackberry, Blackcurrant, Cranberry, and Raspberry and Their Antioxidant Activity

Abstract

Being delicious and containing strong disease-fighting agents, berries represent an increasing proportion of fruits consumed nowadays in our diet. However, berries are highly perishable as fresh and, therefore, they are usually processed into various products to extend their shelf-life and availability throughout the year. Among the fruit-containing products, jam is one of the most common due to its nourishing properties, its low production costs, and its accessibility for a lengthy period. Rather than home preparation, consumers nowadays increasingly prefer to purchase commercial jams from markets due to its convenience. Although fresh berries have been extensively studied for their phenolic compounds, a limited number of studies investigating commercially manufactured jams have been conducted so far. Considering this, the objective of this study was to assess the total phenolic, flavonoid, and anthocyanin content and the antioxidant activity of five commonly consumed commercial berry jams (blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) and blackcurrant (Ribes nigrun) mixture, blackcurrant (Ribes nigrun), cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) and raspberry (Rubus idaeus)) collected from the market. Even though a possible loss of phenolics, anthocyanins, and a decrease of radical scavenging activity may occur during jam processing and subsequent storage, our data indicated that the selected commercial jams remained good sources of nutritive molecules with antioxidant properties based on the high levels of total phenolics, flavonoids, anthocyanins, and elevated antioxidant activities determined in this study. Additionally, the samples were characterized by GC-MS for their volatile profiles, and terpenes were found to be the dominating class covering more than 74% of volatile compounds in the jams.

First-Pass Metabolism of Polyphenols from Selected Berries: A High-Throughput Bioanalytical Approach

“…The evaluation of the antioxidant capacity of plant-based foods by simultaneously using more than one method is a recommended practice in food science and technology [13].In this study, we used a single electron-transfer (SET; FRAP), a hydrogen atom transfer (HAT; ORAC) and a combined SET/HAT (DPPH) method to assay the antioxidant capacity in the studied samples ( Figure 2). FRAP and DPPH values ranged between 5 (Red Globe grape)-19 (blackberry) and 10 (Red Globe grape)-20 (blackberry) mg TE/ g DW and from 11 (raspberry) to 16 (Red Globe grape) × 10 1 µmol TE/g DW with the ORAC method; similar trends in antioxidant capacity have been reported by other authors for the same berry fruits [3,16]. Also, the antioxidant capacity trend (blackberry > raspberry > Red Globe grape) was directly proportional to their phenolic content (Table 1), as measured by FRAP (100%-71%-26%; r = 0.86) and DPPH (100%-80%-49%; r = 0.84) methods but not with ORAC (100%-95%-140%; r = −0.42).…”

“…Edible berries are rich in flavan-3-ols and anthocyanins that are barely affected during processing [16], although their content and molecular diversity is cultivar dependent [6]. In a preceding paper [7] we reported the spectrophotometric estimation (per g DW) of polyphenol subgroups in freeze-dried Red Globe grape, raspberry, and blackberry as follows: total polyphenols 9.4, 17.6 and 22.7 mg GAE, flavonoids 7.0, 13.1 and 35.3 mg quercetin equivalents (QE), monomeric anthocyanins (0.01, 0.49 and 0.67 mg cyanidin-3-O-glycoside equivalents), proanthocyanidins (0.22, 0.23 and 0.06 mg QE) and hydrolysable phenols (3.7, 7.2, 11.5 mg GAE).…”

“…Also, blackberry and raspberry were better sources of polyphenols as compared to Red Globe grape, particularly in anthocyanin content. It is well-known that these berries are good sources of flavones (e.g., apigenin, chrysin), flavonols (e.g., kaempferol), phenolic acids (e.g., ellagic acid, caffeic acid), ellagitannins (e.g., sanguiin H-6, lambertianin C), anthocyanidins (all but peonidin) and anthocyanins such as cyanidin, delphinidin and pelargonidin glycosides [3,16,19].…”

“…Alcalde et al [36] evaluated the relationship between the molecular structure and electrochemical behavior of fifteen polyphenols by DPV, demonstrating that polyphenols with higher sensitivities (lower DPV potential) are strong antioxidants and that flavonoids are more electroactive (lower potentials) than phenolic acids (higher potentials); they also found that catechin exhibits two oxidation peaks at~200 (A ring) and~600 (B ring) mV (vs. Ag|AgCl|KCl reference electrode) at pH 5.0, while at pH 7.5 [37] and 3.6 [11] it exhibits both oxidation peaks at 148/537 mV and~450/750 mV, respectively. Kuromanin and cyanin are major anthocyanins in berry fruits [3,16] both exhibiting the same oxidation potential in their catechol group [P1 (current peak): B-ring; SET mechanism, reversible reduced] but different oxidation behavior at their resorcinol moiety (P2: A-ring, SET mechanism, irreversible) associated with the additional glucosylation (shift right: +95 (pH 3.5-4.5), +130 (pH 7.0) mV] and P1 shifts to lower potentials (vs. Ag|AgCl|KCl reference electrode) when increasing pH [20][21][22].…”

A phytotherapeutic approach to hand and feet dyshidrosis using vegetables (espcially mashed celeriac applied topically)

“…The AA have decided to approach the specific concern by the aids of phytotherapeutic agents and so they have created a mix of vegetal antihystamine extracts to assume orally: Vaccinium myrtillus seed extract [5][6][7] Capparis spinosa fruit extract Propolis extract And a pomade containing 15% of Apium graveolens rapaceum (Printz) root extract.…”