The influence of variety on the enzymatic degradation of carrots and on functional and physiological properties of the cell wall materials

Abstract

In order to investigate the influence of variety on the structure and properties of enzymatically degraded cell wall materials (CWM), carrots of the varieties Major (direct consumption) and Karotan (cultivated for industrial processing) were used to prepare cold water extracted reference materials (RM) as well as materials treated with macerating enzymes (MC) and with liquefying enzymes (LF). Rehydrated samples RM and MC showed a good maintenance of the grown biological structure (tissue particles for RM; single cells for MC), a high porosity, excellent hydration properties as well as remarkable visco-elastic and structural viscous properties, independent of the carrot variety used. However, the cell wall of the variety Major was more strongly degraded by enzymatic treatment than that of Karotan. Thus, the strongly degraded LF of Major showed the lowest values for porosity, hydration properties and rheological parameters of their suspensions. In vitro, the CWM from Karotan also gave in higher concentrations of short-chain fatty acids during its fermentation with human faeces flora and had a better binding capacity of glycochenodeoxycholic acid than the CWM from Major. Such CWM from carrots may be promising as ingredients for the production of functional foods.