Virginia Fernández-Ruiz

Mineral and Trace Elements Content in 30 Accessions of Tomato Fruits (Solanum lycopersicum L.,) and Wild Relatives (Solanum pimpinellifolium L., Solanum cheesmaniae L. Riley, and Solanum habrochaites S. Knapp & D.M. Spooner)

Tomato quality and its potential health benefits are directly related to its chemical composition. The characterization of nutritional properties of Solanum germplasm is essential to choose suitable donor parents for breeding programs. In this sense, wild species could be very useful for tomato fruit quality genetic improvement. With this objective, in this work, we characterize micronutrients content in Eulycopersicon germplasm (20 cultivars of S. lycopersicum L. and 10 accessions of wild relatives) analyzing mineral (Na, K, Ca, Mg) and trace elements (Cu, Fe, Zn, Mn) and applying multidimensional analysis (principal component and cluster analysis). The classification obtained and the comparison of cultivars performance showed that wild accessions belonging to S. cheesmaniae (L. Riley), S. pimpinellifolium L., and S. habrochaites S. Knapp & D.M. Spooner can be of great usefulness in breeding programs to improve mineral content characteristics of conventional S. lycopersicum varieties due to its higher mineral content.

Neural Network Analysis of Spectroscopic Data of Lycopene and β-Carotene Content in Food Samples Compared to HPLC-UV-Vis

In this study a neural network (NN) model was designed to predict lycopene and beta-carotene concentrations in food samples, combined with a simple and fast technique, such as UV-vis spectroscopy. The measurement of the absorbance at 446 and 502 nm of different beta-carotene and lycopene standard mixtures was used to optimize a neural network based on a multilayer perceptron (MLP) (learning and verification process). Then, for validation purposes, the optimized NN has been applied to determine the concentration of both compounds in food samples (fresh tomato, tomato concentrate, tomato sauce, ketchup, tomato juice, watermelon, medlar, green pepper, and carrots), comparing the NN results with the known values of these compounds obtained by analytical techniques (UV-vis and HPLC). It was concluded that when the MLP-NN is used within the range studied, the optimized NN is able to estimate the beta-carotene and lycopene concentrations in food samples with an adequate accuracy, solving the UV-vis interference of beta-carotene and lycopene.

Lycopene: A Review of Chemical and Biological Activity Related to Beneficial Health Effects

Abstract This work focuses on the developments related to lycopene, a natural carotenoid and bioactive compound, particularly with reference to its chemistry and biological activity and its potential health effects. The formation of free radicals or other compounds in the body that are able to oxidize lipids, proteins, and DNA (also known as oxidative stress) is one of the major risk factors for chronic diseases. There is considerable evidence that lycopene has a protective effect against cardiovascular disease, hypertension, atherosclerosis, skin damage, and certain types of cancer such as prostate, breast, lung, and others. Because of this, the presence of lycopene in the diet is considered to be of great value. Dietary lycopene may increase the lycopene level in the body and act as an antioxidant. It may trap reactive oxygen species resulting in an increase in the overall antioxidant potential or a reduction in the oxidative damage to lipids (lipoproteins, membrane lipids), proteins (important enzymes), and DNA (genetic material), thereby lowering the oxidative stress. Alternatively, the increase in serum lycopene level may regulate gene functions, with the enhancement of intercellular communication (responsible for cell growth), modulating hormonal and immune response, regulating metabolism, and thus lowering the risk of chronic diseases. These mechanisms may also be interrelated and may act simultaneously to provide health benefits. Lycopene is quickly absorbed from different food sources (mainly tomato products) and distributed to corporal tissues where it maintains its antioxidant properties. This absorption varies depending on various factors such as food source, food processing, and other components in the diet. The human body is unable to synthesize carotenoids, such as lycopene, so a suitable diet intake is necessary to reach the adequate levels. In this review, the new developments in lycopene analysis by spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques along with mathematical modeling are also considered. These advances have made it possible to evaluate and determine the biological activity of lycopene in natural products. All this knowledge about the chemistry and biological activity of lycopene will be very helpful for the food industry, providing new opportunities in the field of food product development.

Ethnobotanical and Food Composition Monographs of Selected Mediterranean Wild Edible Plants

This chapter presents 38 monographs about 41 selected wild edible plants traditionally consumed in different countries of the Mediterranean basin: Allium ampeloprasum, Anchusa azurea, Apium nodiflorum, Arbutus unedo, Asparagus acutifolius, Beta maritima, Borago officinalis, Bryonia dioica, Capsella bursa-pastoris, Chenopodium album, Chondrilla juncea, Cichorium intybus, Crataegus monogyna, Crithmum maritimum, Eruca vesicaria, Foeniculum vulgare, Humulus lupulus, Malva sylvestris, Montia fontana, Myrtus communis, Papaver rhoeas, Plantago lanceolata, P. major, Portulaca oleracea, Prunus spinosa, Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, Rubus ulmifolius, Rumex acetosa, R. papillaris, R. pulcher, Scolymus hispanicus, Silene vulgaris, Silybum marianum, Smilax aspera, Sonchus asper, S. oleraceus, Tamus communis, Taraxacum officinale, T. obovatum, Urtica dioica, and Ziziphus lotus. These monographs have two parts. The first part consists of a botanical and graphical description of the species and a resume of ethnobotanical data registered in the Mediterranean countries for this edible plant. The second part supplies food composition data for each species, covering the main constituents, vitamins and other bioactive compounds as well as fatty acids profile, based on scientific literature data.

Bioactivity, proximate, mineral and volatile profiles along the flowering stages of Opuntia microdasys (Lehm.): defining potential applications

Opuntia spp. flowers have been traditionally used for medical purposes, mostly because of their diversity in bioactive molecules with health promoting properties. The proximate, mineral and volatile compound profiles, together with the cytotoxic and antimicrobial properties were characterized in O. microdasys flowers at different maturity stages, revealing several statistically significant differences. O. microdasys stood out mainly for its high contents of dietary fiber, potassium and camphor, and its high activities against HCT15 cells, Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus versicolor and Penicillium funiculosum. The vegetative stage showed the highest cytotoxic and antifungal activities, whilst the full flowering stage was particularly active against bacterial species. The complete dataset has been classified by principal component analysis, achieving clearly identifiable groups for each flowering stage, elucidating also the most distinctive features, and comprehensively profiling each of the assayed stages. The results might be useful to define the best flowering stage considering practical application purposes.

The ability of spectrum autocorrelation models to predict the lycopene concentration in foods through visible spectroscopic data.

We developed a novel computerized approach based on lag-k autocorrelation coefficients (LCCs) and linear models (LMs) to estimate the concentration of lycopene in foods by the spectroscopy. The LCCs were calculated using the data obtained using whole visible scans from 400 to 600 nm (vide supra) of lycopene standards and food samples (ketchup, tomato juice and tomato sauce). The chaotic parameter (CP) was then transferred into a LM to estimate the concentration of lycopene compound. The integrated LCC/visible spectroscopy method developed can be considered as a satisfactory analytical technique able to estimate lycopene concentration in food samples in a fast accurate way, with a mean prediction error lower than 5.7% and a mean correlation coefficient higher than 0.957.

Wild Edible Plants as Sources of Carotenoids, Fibre, Phenolics and Other Non-Nutrient Bioactive Compounds

Wild edible plants are important sources of bioactive compounds such as carotenoids, fibre, phenolics and other non-nutrient compounds. Carotenoids are one of the most important groups of pigments widely distributed in nature, with important metabolic functions. Carotenoids, being C40 isoprenoids (tetraterpenes), play a key role in human diet due to their metabolism to vitamin A (retinol), besides other important activities due to its antioxidant properties. Fibre is a relevant component of wild edible plants carbohydrates, since insufficient consumption of fibre in Western societies is closely linked to certain health problems, such as some so-called developed society’s diseases. Phenolic compounds include a wide spectrum of molecules that contain an aromatic group and one or more hydroxyl groups on the aromatic ring. The range includes simple phenolic acids, which are derivatives of benzoic acid or cinnamic acid, and extends to the complex family of flavonoids and tannins. Most of these compounds have shown antioxidant activity, associated with health benefits due to the reduction in cardiovascular disease risk factors, the decrease of the incidence of many different types of cancers besides their protective role against a wide range of other chronic diseases.

Sanguinello and Tarocco (Citrus sinensis [L.] Osbeck): Bioactive compounds and colour appearance of blood oranges

Sanguinello and Tarocco (Citrus sinensis [L.] Osbeck) are the most common and widespread blood oranges varieties in the Mediterranean climate area. Its interest is increasing mainly due to nutritional and organoleptic properties. In this work, three blood orange varieties cultivated in Spain (Sanguinelli, Tarocco Rosso and Tarocco Ippolito) were characterized in relation to physicochemical parameters and relevant bioactive compounds (vitamin C, organic acids, flavonoids and anthocyanins) as well as colour characterization. All samples showed important vitamin C values (higher than 54.9 mg/100 g of edible portion). Flavonoids represent the largest family of phenolic compounds, being hesperidin, the major flavonoid. Ten different anthocyanins were identified in blood oranges, seven cyanidin derivatives and three delphinidin derivatives, being the most abundant cyanidin 3-(6″-malonylglucoside) and cyanidin 3-glucoside. Blood oranges can show an intense reddish colour in peel whereas the pulp has a yellow-orange colour. Overall, these varieties are good sources of bioactive compounds.

Wild edible Swiss chard leaves (Beta vulgaris L. var. cicla): Nutritional, phytochemical composition and biological activities

Nutritional, soluble carbohydrates and aroma volatile profiles of Tunisian wild Swiss chard leaves (Beta vulgaris L. var. cicla) have been characterized. The chemical composition of an ethanol chard leaves extract, as well as its in vitro antioxidant, α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition activities were carefully evaluated. The results of the proximate composition showed that total carbohydrate fraction, mainly as dietary fiber were the major macronutrient (2.43 g/100 g fw), being the insoluble dietary fiber the predominant fraction (2.30 g/100 g). In addition, leaves of Beta vulgaris L. were especially rich in Mg, Fe and Ca (4.54, 2.94 and 2.28 mg/100 g fw) and very poor in Na (0.09 mg/100 g fw). Volatile profile revealed that non-terpene derivatives and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were the essential classes of volatiles in the chard leaves. Myricitrin, p-cumaric acid and rosmarinic acid were characterized. Moreover, the ethanol extract of wild Swiss chard leaves revealed significant antioxidant capacity. Furthermore, a good enzyme inhibitory effects on α-glucosidase and α-amylase activities were observed. These findings highlighted the potential health benefits of wild Swiss Chard as a source of nutritional and bioactive compounds.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN LYCOPENE ANALYSIS BY SPECTROSCOPIC AND CHROMATOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES, ACCOMPANIED WITH MATHEMATICAL MODELLING

Comunicacion Oral sobre los resultados obtenidos en el estudio de las propiedades del lycopeno presente en el tomate como compuesto bioactivo. Se realizo la identificacion y cuantificacion por diferentes metodologias experimentales. Se muestran los resultados analiticos comapartivamente con distintas tecnicas.