Nutritional and Bioactive Compounds in Dried Sea-Buckthorn Pomace

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to study the nutritional and bioactive quality of dried sea buckthorn pomace by proximate analysis and evaluation of total phenolics, total flavonoids, total carotenoids content and ABTS antioxidant activity. In addition, the carotenoid, amino acid and fatty acid profiles were assessed using chromatographic methods while mineral content was determined using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Dried sea buckthorn pomace presented high values of the fat (20.05%), crude protein (14.89%) and crude fiber (19.86%) content. The essential amino acids represented 38.42% of total amino acids, the most abundant being leucine, followed by phenylalanine and lysine. The fatty acid profile revealed a high concentration of monounsaturated fatty acids (53.08% of total fatty acids), as a result of the high content of oleic and palmitoleic acids, and a low ratio of n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (1.42). Total carotenoids showed average contents of 245.6 mg/100 g, of which the major ones were β‑carotene (80.76 mg/kg) and zeaxanthin (69.60 mg/kg). The results demonstrated that dried sea buckthorn by-products are valuable sources of nutritional and bioactive compounds and have potential to be used as nutraceutical for feed, as ingredient for functional food, as well as for the pharmaceutical industry.