Abstract
The objective of this study was investigationofphysical and compositional fruits characteristics of six chestnut cultivars. The fruits belonging to these cultivars were subjected to physical and chemical composition determinations, and the obtained results were comparatively analysed. It can be noticed that there are significant differences between cultivars for all the analysed traits. A high variability was found between cultivars in terms of nutrients content. The moisture content of chestnuts analysed in this study ranged from 51.63% to 58.42%. The protein content recorded values between 5.40 and 7.18% fresh matter. The polyphenols content in cultivars taken under analysis was between 1.65 and 19.60 mg GAE/g, which is a very large variation range between different cultivars. The obtained values of antioxidant activity of chestnuts are high, ranging from 0.73 to 9.90 mg Trolox/g of fresh substance, revealing also a wide variation range. Among the individual phenolic compounds, elagic and gallic acids were determined in higher amounts. The results of this study have shown that chestnut fruits contain significant concentrations of primary and secondary metabolites that are known for their positive effects on human health.
Highlights
For many centuries, sweet chestnuts (Castaneasativa Mill.) have been some of the most important food resources in European rural areas, but the emergence of severe pathologies as well as the depopulation of mountain areas have caused a gradual decline in their consumption (Adua, 1998)
The results of this study have shown that chestnut fruits contain significant concentrations of primary and secondary metabolites that are known for their positive effects on human health
This is due to several reasons, among which are included: i) some data refers to chestnuts and others refers to marrons, which are products with different morphological characteristics and technological characteristics; ii) some cultivars have different ecotypes with different chemical characteristics (Sacchetti et al, 2005) related to ecological environment; iii) different clones of the same cultivar could exhibit a different chemical composition (Pinnavaia et al, 1993); iv) chestnut composition shows a dramatic variation determined by the harvesting year (Pinnavaia et al, 1993; Sacchetti et al, 2005)
Summary
Sweet chestnuts (Castaneasativa Mill.) have been some of the most important food resources in European rural areas, but the emergence of severe pathologies as well as the depopulation of mountain areas have caused a gradual decline in their consumption (Adua, 1998). An important aspect in the chemical characterization of chestnuts is that the data in the literature shows great variability, and sometimes it is difficult to describe the chemical characteristics of chestnut cultivars This is due to several reasons, among which are included: i) some data refers to chestnuts and others refers to marrons, which are products with different morphological characteristics and technological characteristics; ii) some cultivars have different ecotypes with different chemical characteristics (Sacchetti et al, 2005) related to ecological environment; iii) different clones of the same cultivar could exhibit a different chemical composition (Pinnavaia et al, 1993); iv) chestnut composition shows a dramatic variation determined by the harvesting year (Pinnavaia et al, 1993; Sacchetti et al, 2005). The interaction between years and cultivar is significant (Ferreira-Cardoso et al, 2005) Another source of variation in data about composition is that some literature references relate about the fresh fruit, while others refers to dried f ur it, which represent the bulk of commercial products available on the market. Another important objective of this study was to determine the content of bioactive antioxidant compounds (total polyphenols, individual phenolic compounds, flavonoids) in chestnuts, as well as their in vitro antioxidant activity, aswellas to test the potential use of chestnuts as natural source of antioxidant compounds
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