Francesca Bot

Effect of ultrasound treatment, oil addition and storage time on lycopene stability and in vitro bioaccessibility of tomato pulp.

This study was performed to investigate the influence of ultrasound processing on tomato pulp containing no sunflower oil, or increasing amounts (i.e. 2.5%, 5% and 10%), on lycopene concentration and in vitro bioaccessibility at time zero and during storage at 5 °C. Results confirmed previous findings in that ultrasonication was responsible for cell breakage and subsequent lycopene release in a highly viscous matrix. Neither the ultrasound process nor oil addition affected lycopene concentration. A decrease of approximately 35% lycopene content occurred at storage times longer than 15 days, due to isomerisation and oxidation reactions. No differences in lycopene in vitro bioaccessibility were found between the untreated and ultrasonically treated samples; this parameter decreased as a consequence of oil addition. Losses of lycopene in vitro bioaccessibility ranging between 50% and 80% occurred in the untreated and ultrasonically treated tomato pulps with and without oil during storage, mainly due to carotenoid degradation.

Use of Time-Resolved Fluorescence to Monitor Bioactive Compounds in Plant Based Foodstuffs

The study of compounds that exhibit antioxidant activity has recently received much interest in the food industry because of their potential health benefits. Most of these compounds are plant based, such as polyphenolics and carotenoids, and there is a need to monitor them from the field through processing and into the body. Ideally, a monitoring technique should be non-invasive with the potential for remote capabilities. The application of the phenomenon of fluorescence has proved to be well suited, as many plant associated compounds exhibit fluorescence. The photophysical behaviour of fluorescent molecules is also highly dependent on their microenvironment, making them suitable probes to monitor changes in pH, viscosity and polarity, for example. Time-resolved fluorescence techniques have recently come to the fore, as they offer the ability to obtain more information, coupled with the fact that the fluorescence lifetime is an absolute measure, while steady state just provides relative and average information. In this work, we will present illustrative time-resolved measurements, rather than a comprehensive review, to show the potential of time-resolved fluorescence applied to the study of bioactive substances. The aim is to help assess if any changes occur in their form, going from extraction via storage and cooking to the interaction with serum albumin, a principal blood transport protein.

The effect of pulsed electric fields on carotenoids bioaccessibility: The role of tomato matrix

Tomato fractions were subjected to pulsed electric fields treatment combined or not with heating. Results showed that pulsed electric fields and heating applied in combination or individually induced permeabilization of cell membranes in the tomato fractions. However, no changes in β-carotene and lycopene bioaccessibility were found upon combined and individual pulsed electric fields and heating, except in the following cases: (i) in tissue, a significant decrease in lycopene bioaccessibility upon combined pulsed electric fields and heating and heating only was observed; (ii) in chromoplasts, both β-carotene and lycopene bioaccessibility significantly decreased upon combined pulsed electric fields and heating and pulsed electric fields only. The reduction in carotenoids bioaccessibility was attributed to modification in chromoplasts membrane and carotenoids-protein complexes. Differences in the effects of pulsed electric fields on bioaccessibility among different tomato fractions were related to tomato structure complexity.

Use of time-resolved spectroscopy as a method to monitor carotenoids present in tomato extract obtained using ultrasound treatment.

INTRODUCTION Compounds exhibiting antioxidant activity have received much interest in the food industry because of their potential health benefits. Carotenoids such as lycopene, which in the human diet mainly derives from tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), have attracted much attention in this aspect and the study of their extraction, processing and storage procedures is of importance. Optical techniques potentially offer advantageous non-invasive and specific methods to monitor them. OBJECTIVES To obtain both fluorescence and Raman information to ascertain if ultrasound assisted extraction from tomato pulp has a detrimental effect on lycopene. METHOD Use of time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy to monitor carotenoids in a hexane extract obtained from tomato pulp with application of ultrasound treatment (583 kHz). The resultant spectra were a combination of scattering and fluorescence. Because of their different timescales, decay associated spectra could be used to separate fluorescence and Raman information. This simultaneous acquisition of two complementary techniques was coupled with a very high time-resolution fluorescence lifetime measurement of the lycopene. RESULTS Spectroscopic data showed the presence of phytofluene and chlorophyll in addition to lycopene in the tomato extract. The time-resolved spectral measurement containing both fluorescence and Raman data, coupled with high resolution time-resolved measurements, where a lifetime of ~5 ps was attributed to lycopene, indicated lycopene appeared unaltered by ultrasound treatment. Detrimental changes were, however, observed in both chlorophyll and phytofluene contributions. CONCLUSION Extracted lycopene appeared unaffected by ultrasound treatment, while other constituents (chlorophyll and phytofluene) were degraded.

Treatment of Food Industry Wastewater With Ultrasound: A Big Opportunity for the Technology

Abstract Considering the growing concerns about wastewater management in the food industry, new strategies are increasingly under study. Among them, ultrasound has been proposed for industrial wastewater treatment. This technology has been applied for water disinfection and decontamination and as a pretreatment prior to anaerobic digestion for biogas production. Ultrasound treatment alone did not reduce the microbial load of wastewater nor completely degrade pollutants. However, its combination with other strategies, including thermal treatment, addition of oxidizing agents, filtration, and adsorption, has been successfully applied for wastewater treatment.