Carotenoid Extraction from Locally and Organically Produced Cereals Using Saponification Method

Abrar Hussain,Eva Johansson,Hans Larsson

doi:10.3390/pr9050783

Abrar Hussain, Eva Johansson + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9050783

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Abstract

Carotenoids are important phytochemicals contributing nutritional health benefits in the human diet, with a significant contribution from cereals as one of the major food component around the world. Different methods have been described and adopted for the extraction and isolation of carotenoid compounds. Saponification can be seen as an option for carotenoid extraction from cereals as it converts retinol esters to retinol and removes other abundant compounds such as triglycerides. Extraction of carotenoids content of locally adapted and organic cereals have been limitedly investigated and was, therefore, evaluated in the present study, with a specific aim to understand genotypic and local cultivation effects and interactions. Therefore, 17 diverse cereal genotypes of local origin were grown organically in four localities and evaluated for carotenoid content and composition by HPLC. The results showed a large variation in content and composition of carotenoids in locally adapted and organically grown cereal genotypes, with lutein as the dominating type in wheat and rye, while zeaxanthin was the dominating type in barley. High-level genotypes showed values (9.9 mg/kg of total carotenoids) similar to the highest values previously reported in specific types of wheat. The barley genotypes showed relatively high stability in carotenoids content within and between cultivation locations, while large interactions were found with the cultivation location for the rest of the genotypes, indicating their local adaptation. The local adaptation of the cereal genotypes evaluated contributes large opportunities for local production of high value, highly nutritious food products, while the direct value of these genotypes for conventional plant breeding for varieties performing similar over broad environmental ranges, are more limited.

Highlights

Cereals are the most important type of crops in terms of quantity available for food production to the human population [1,2,3]
The total carotenoid content in the wheat grain of locally and organically grown cereals varied between 1.96 mg/kg in the spring wheat cultivar ‘Ölands’ grown in Alnarp to 9.87 mg/kg in the spring wheat cultivar ‘Dalarna’ grown at Krusenberg (Table 2)
The locally adapted and organically produced cereals investigated for carotenoids contents extracted through saponification showed high amounts of carotenoid compounds, with significant differences in content among cereal type, and among cultivars of the same type of cereal, and cultivation location had a significant impact on the content

Summary

Introduction

Cereals are the most important type of crops in terms of quantity available for food production to the human population [1,2,3]. Within the Nordic hemisphere, only wheat among these three can be grown, but other cereals such as barley, rye, and oats are instead making an important contribution to the cereals share in the human diet [5]. To other regions of the world, locally adapted cultivars have been developed in the Nordic regions, of crops traditionally in use [6]. Such traditionally grown cultivars (landraces) are often adapted to the local environment in which they have been grown, including an adaptation to the local climatic and soil conditions [7]. Recent studies have indicated that some traditionally grown cultivars have a good capability for uptake and transportation of, e.g., minerals to the grain, resulting in a high nutritional value of the grains [8,9]

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