Effect of high-pressure processing applied as pretreatment on carotenoids, flavonoids and vitamin C in juice of the sweet oranges 'Navel' and the red-fleshed 'Cara Cara (original) (raw)

2020, Food Research International

This work examines the effect of high-pressure processing (HPP), applied to either juices or to whole-peeled fruits from ordinary Navel and red-fleshed 'Cara Cara' (CC) sweet oranges, on the extractability and stability of carotenoids, flavonoids, vitamin C and hydrophilic antioxidant activity. HPP at 200 MPa/25ºC/1 min (HPP-200) were assayed as pre-treatment on whole-peeled orange fruit before to juicing. Orange juices obtained from untreated and high-pressure-treated peeled oranges (HPP-200) were subsequently processed at 400 MPa/40ºC/1 min (HPP-400 and HPP-200-400). HPP-400 applied on freshly-prepared orange juice reduced bioactive compounds, mainly in N-juices, an effect that could be related with the mechanical juicing procedure (jarblender) used or/and with the pressure-induced activation of detrimental food enzymes. HPP-200 and HPP-200-400 could be considered optimal to produce functionalized N-juices since the concentration of hesperidin (25% and 16%), narirutin (27% and 9%), phytoene (40% and 97%) and phytofluene (9-and 12-fold) were increased, and the vitamin C and the antioxidant activity were unchanged comparted to untreated freshly-prepared juice. These two HPP treatments preserved flavonoids and vitamin C in CC-juice, but decreased ~16% total carotenoids, mainly lycopene due to its more exposed deposition in the food matrix. However, all the HP-treated CC-juices presented higher carotenoid content than the corresponding N-juices, and can be then considered an excellent dietary source of these compounds. Therefore, HPP did not modified the profiling of bioactive compounds of 'Navel' (N) and 'Cara Cara' (CC) juices but the concentration of total and individual carotenoids, flavonoids, vitamin C and antioxidant activity was differentially affected depending on the type of bioactive compounds and its position in the food matrix, the orange cultivar and the HPP conditions.