Effect of cooking, in vitro digestion and Caco‐2 cells absorption on the radical scavenging activities of edible mushrooms

Abstract

Summary Agaricus bisporus, Lentinula edodes and Boletus edulis fruiting bodies were submitted to domestic cooking treatments, in vitro digestion and absorption tests to investigate whether their antioxidant compounds were bioaccesible and bioavailable. Water‐soluble antioxidants were more resistant to boiling, frying, grilling and microwaving than methanol‐soluble antioxidants. The precise influence of the cooking methodologies was specie‐dependent with aqueous cooking being the most drastic treatment. Cooking affected the 2,2′‐Azino‐bis(3‐ethylbenzothiazoline‐6‐sulfonic acid) and 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl scavenging activities more than digestion because after intestinal digestion, the antioxidant capacities were higher than grilled mushrooms, probably because other antioxidants were generated or liberated during this step. Caco‐2 monolayers absorbed 47.6% of the antioxidant activity of the applied digested extracts from A. bisporus (33.4% in B. edulis) and transformed the applied compounds into other antioxidants, since the bioavailable fraction of L. edodes showed higher antioxidant activity than the applied fraction. Phenolic compounds, not proteins or digestion products from polysaccharides, seemed to be related to the absorbed antioxidant activities.