Abstract
Nowadays, recent studies have demonstrated that plant-derived foods were characterized by their richness in bioactive phytochemicals and their consumption has a protective effect for human health. The effects of ionizing radiation on phytochemical properties of cooked Malva sylvestris L. (Mallow) were investigated. Irradiation increased significantly (P<0.05) the total polyphenols and flavonoids content of cooked Mallow. Irradiation at 2 and 4 kGy doses resulted in a significant increase in the DPPH and ABTS radical-scavenging ability of cooked Mallow extracts. There was no significant change on carbohydrate, lipid, ash, and protein content. While the mineral composition of K and Na was affected slightly after irradiation, the amounts of Mg, P, Ca, Fe, Z, and Cu remain unaffected at 2 kGy and reduced slightly at 4 kGy. The antimicrobial activity was unaffected after irradiation. Postirradiation storage studies showed that the cooked irradiated Mallow was microbiologically safe even after 20 days of storage period. Sensory properties of cooked irradiated Mallow were unaffected by the treatment. This study supports that cooking process followed by gamma irradiation did not compromise the chemical composition and sensory characteristics of Mallow.
Highlights
Aromatic and medicinal plants have been reported to contain a higher content of bioactive phytochemicals such as substantial amount of vitamins, phenolic compounds, and essential oils and can be used as important sources of natural antioxidants for food application and pharmaceuticals [1]
The Total Polyphenols Content (TPC) of the extracts obtained from irradiated cooked Mallow at 2 kGy increases significantly (P
The same trend was observed for Total Flavonoids Content (TFC) and a pronounced increase, reaching 5 and 7 times, respectively, for 2 and 4 kGy in irradiated cooked Mallow compared to the unirradiated samples suggesting that flavonoids are less radioresistant than the other phenolic classes
Summary
Aromatic and medicinal plants have been reported to contain a higher content of bioactive phytochemicals such as substantial amount of vitamins, phenolic compounds, and essential oils and can be used as important sources of natural antioxidants for food application and pharmaceuticals [1]. It is very important to increase the antioxidant intake in our nutrition, for that, there is a considerable attention to enriching food products with aromatic and medicinal plants which are considered rich in natural antioxidants [3]. There are many phytochemicals studies of these plants [7, 8] and to the best of our knowledge, no studies focused on the effect of ionizing radiation effect on cooked Mallow have been reported.
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