Onion high-pressure processing: Flavonol content and antioxidant activity

Abstract

Onion flavonol content and antioxidant activity have been related to human health promoting effects. Quercetin and quercetin glucosides (quercetin-4′-glucoside and quercetin-3,4′-diglucoside) have been reported the main onion flavonols in recent literature. Impact of combined treatments of high-pressure processing (HPP) and temperature on onion nutritional attributes has been scarcely studied. Our study aimed to investigate the impact of HPP technology combined with temperature on onion (Allium cepa L. var. cepa, ‘Grano de Oro’) total phenol content, flavonol content, and antioxidant capacity. The experimental design comprised a response surface methodology according to a central composite face-centred design. The variable ranges were 100–400 MPa (pressure) and 5–50 °C (temperature), time was set up constant to 5 min. Response surfaces of onion total quercetin, quercetin-4′-glucoside, and quercetin-3,4′-diglucoside content showed a similar pattern. The application of low temperature (5 °C) combined with pressures of 100 and 400 MPa triggered to a better extraction of these flavonols among the treatments analysed. Response surface of the EC50 antioxidant parameter as a function of pressure and temperature showed a clear trend towards an increase in onion antioxidant activity when applying pressures from 100 to 400 MPa. Four hundred megapascals/5 °C-processed onion showed an approximately 33% higher quercetin-4′-glucoside content compared with the untreated onion, and maintained the antioxidant activity of the untreated onion.