Abstract
Alcoholic beverages like apple cider are considered functional beverages with several health benefits, when consumed in moderation, which are mainly attributed to their microbiota and the plethora of their bioactive compounds. Among them, bio-functional polar lipids (PL) have recently been found in apple cider, which despite low quantities, have exhibited strong anti-inflammatory and anti-platelet properties, while fermentation seems to affect the functionality of apple cider’s PL bioactives. The aim of the present study was to elaborate yeast strains isolated from the complex mixtures of apple surface and must yeasts for evaluating their effects on the anti-platelet functional properties of PL bioactives from their final fermented apple cider products. First, bio-functional PL were extracted and separated from the biomass of the different isolated apple surface/must yeast strains, and were further assessed for their anti-platelet potency against human platelet aggregation induced by the potent inflammatory and thrombotic mediator platelet-activating factor (PAF), or by a classic platelet agonist like adenosine diphopshate (ADP). Novel functional apple ciders were then produced from the fermentation of apple juice by elaborating the most bioactive and resilient yeast strains isolated from the apple must with optimum fermentation properties. PL bioactives extracted from these novel apple cider products were also further assessed for their anti-platelet properties against both the PAF and ADP pathways of human platelet aggregation. These novel cider products were found to contain PL bioactives with lower IC50 values (~40 μg) and thus increased anti-platelet potency against platelet aggregation induced by PAF and ADP. GC-MS analysis of the PL bioactives extracted from these novel apple ciders showed that apple cider PL bioactives are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), such as the omega-6 linoleic acid (LA) and the omega-3 alpha linolenic acid (ALA), with favorably lower levels for their omega-6/omega-3 PUFA ratio, which further support the observed strong anti-platelet properties putative anti-inflammatory potency for the apple cider PL bioactives. However, further studies are needed in order to elucidate and fully characterize the apple yeast strains that can be utilized for increasing the anti-inflammatory, anti-platelet and cardioprotective functional properties of their fermented apple cider products.
Highlights
Introduction distributed under the terms andFermented alcoholic beverages, including apple cider, have been shown to provide several functional properties with health benefits when consumed in moderation
Within the present study the most resilient, bioactive, and efficient for fermentations yeast strains of the indigenous yeast species Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Hanseniaspora spp., Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Debaryomyces, and Brettanomyces spp., isolated from apple must of three types of apple varieties depending on their tannin content (Jonagold, Dabinett and Aston Bitter, respectively), were further utilized for apple cider fermentations
All these apples must strain, along with the apple ciders produced by the most bioactive and efficient for fermentations apple must strains, were evaluated for the anti-platelet potency of their polar lipids (PL) bioactives, while their fatty acid profile and structure activity relationships were elucidated by Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS)-based lipidomics
Summary
Introduction distributed under the terms andFermented alcoholic beverages, including apple cider, have been shown to provide several functional properties with health benefits when consumed in moderation. PL bioactives with similar anti-inflammatory potency have been found in several yeasts/bacteria strains utilized for the production through fermentation of other alcoholic beverages like wine and beer, and of bioethanol production, while both beer and wine products from such fermentations were found to possess PL and phenolic compounds with strong antithrombotic and cardioprotective properties [3,4,5] In all these alcoholic beverages including apple cider, it was reported that fermentation process affects the anti-inflammatory and anti-platelet functional properties of the final fermented product [1,3,4,5]
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