Synergism and phenolic bioaccessibility during in vitro co‐digestion of cooked cowpea with orange juice

Abstract

Foods are susceptible to matrix interferences during the gastrointestinal transit that can affect bioactive molecules. We proposed in vitro co-digestion of cowpea beans and orange juice to assess polyphenols bioaccessibility and synergisms. We performed gastrointestinal simulation combining beans and a fruit beverage, to mimic a common meal in a more realistic set-up than the usual single-food models. Twenty phenolic compounds were released in oral, gastric and intestinal compartments and were identified by HPLC-DAD. Gallic acid, (À)-epicatechin and chlorogenic acid were the most bioaccessible polyphenols.Cooking and solvent extraction of cowpea beans affected their polyphenolic concentrations. After digestion, the bioaccessibility indexes were higher for cowpea (136.11%) and cooked cowpea (744.74%) when compared to orange juice (31.87%) indicating that the thermal treatment enhanced the bioaccessibility of cowpea phenolics. The antioxidant capacity was higher in the end of co-digestion compared to cooked cowpea and orange juice digested alone due to synergistic polyphenol-polyphenol interactions or polyphenol-protein interactions. The combination of orange juice with cooked cowpea in co-digestion promoted high content of some bioaccessible phenolics, with 10 out of 20 compounds showing positive interactions at the intestinal phase, suggesting that food synergisms are not neglectable for beans and citrus polyphenols release during the digestion course.

Experimental protocols for in vitro gut models in food research: Editorial

“…So far, the protocol presented in this paper has the power to compare the modulation of the microbiota from different healthy and para-pathological conditions (Ishii Mauro et al, 2022). Honaiser et al (2022) proposed in vitro co-digestion of cowpea beans and orange juice to evaluate the bioaccessibility of polyphenols synergisms and. So far, the authors performed gastrointestinal simulation of beans along a fruit beverage, to mimic a common meal in a more realistic set-up than the usual single-food models.…”

“…Honaiser et al . (2022) proposed in vitro co‐digestion of cowpea beans and orange juice to evaluate the bioaccessibility of polyphenols synergisms and. So far, the authors performed gastrointestinal simulation of beans along a fruit beverage, to mimic a common meal in a more realistic set‐up than the usual single‐food models.…”

“…In conclusions, the authors found that the use of a co‐digestion set‐up allowed to observe that the combination of orange juice with cooked cowpea led to higher content of bioaccessible polyphenols than the digestion of these samples alone, and their concentrations revealed that food synergisms are not neglectable when considering bioaccessibility behaviours during in vitro digestion. The protocol presented in this paper is capable to discriminate the polyphenols profiles of single and combined food types after in vitro digestion (Honaiser et al ., 2022).…”