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Triticum spelta is one of the most popular wheat species with multiple applications in the bakery industry. Lingonberries fruits are considered as some of the most valuable fruits due to its antioxidant and antimicrobial properties being widely used in the pharmaceutical industry, but also in food processing. This paper presents a study on the influence of using dehydrated and grinded lingonberries fruit as an addition to spelt wheat flour on its baking properties, physicochemical characteristics, antioxidant properties and antimicrobial activity. Five mixtures of spelt flour:lingonberries were made in the following proportions: 95:5, 90:10, 85:15, 80:20, 75:25. The addition of the grinded fruits to the flour resulted in a decrease of the wet gluten content from 39% (in flour) and 28% in the mixture 85:15 and a decrease of the gluten deformation index from 7mm (in flour) to 4mm in the mixture 85:15. Dehydrated lingonberries grind recorded the highest antiradical activity on DPPH radicals (81.94%), the highest content in polyphenols (219.24 mgGAE/g) and in vitamin C (27.07mg/100g) of the analyzed samples, resulting in an increase in the total antioxidant activity of the mixtures in the following order: 3.53 times (95:5), 6.09 times (90:10), 12.41 times (85:15), 19.27 times (80:20) and 25.87 times (75:25) respectively. The 80:20 and 75:25 mixtures showed the most effective antibacterial activity of the 5 mixtures against all of bacterial species tested (E. coli, S. aureus, S. typhimurium). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chocolate is one of the most popular foods all over the world, representing a highly nutritious source of energy. In this paper is proposed a way to improve the antioxidant function of chocolate by rosehip powder incorporation in the recipe. Additionally, a part of cocoa from its manufacturing recipe was replaced by carob powder. Rosehip powder brings along a high intake of vitamin C, B1, B2, K, carotenoids, pectin, carbohydrates, and also organic acids. Due to the high level of vitamin content, it is recommended the rosehips consumption in various forms. Carob flour has shown nutritional properties much better than those of cocoa, being an alternative ingredient mainly recommended in the children's nourishment because the carob powder does not stimulate gastric acidity, has a very high antioxidant and contains no gluten or lactose. Thus, in this study were developed chocolate formulas with improved functionality versus the control prepared without any addition of rosehip and carob powder. Eight chocolate formulations were prepared in laboratory conditions. The antioxidant activity was evaluated on the base of spectrophotometric ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. The total phenolics (TP) content was spectrophotometrically evaluated using the Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric method. The vitamin C (VC) content has been measured by titration with 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol sodium salt solution. Our results are useful for food technologists to develop new value-added chocolate formulas by incorporation in the recipe of different functional ingredients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing public interest in natural products has been fostering numerous studies of new sources of natural substances, which might find numerous applications in novel ingredients for functional foods, nutraceuticals and drugs. The genus Phyllanthus consists of more than 1000 species; many of them are used as traditional medicines in tropical and subtropical countries. However some species of this genus remain very poorly investigated. So far as the scientific reports on Phyllanthus phillyreifolius, an indigenous to Reunion Island species, which has been locally known for its benefits on the treatment of diarrhoea and as diuretic, it was chosen as an object of our study. The main objective of this study was to evaluate extraction methods, phytochemical composition and antioxidant activity of P. phillyreifolius extracts, obtained using conventional and innovative extraction methods and applying both one step and sequential extraction procedures with various polarity solvents. Antioxidant properties of extracts were evaluated by total phenolic content (TPC) and other widely used assays, namely DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging, FRAP, ORAC. In addition, the in vitro intracellular antioxidant activity of extracts was also evaluated. The presence of geraniin, phyllanthusiin D, elaeocarpusin, rutin, quercitrin, quercitin-3-glucuronide, gallic and ellagic acids as phenolic constituents of P. phillyreifolius were confirmed by UPLC-Q/TOF-MS analysis. Three isomers of tocopherol (α, β and γ) were quantified by HPLC in lipofhilic extracts. Generally, the results from this study demonstrated that P. phillyreifolius contains large amounts of antioxidants and could be considered as a promising source of ingredients for functional foods, nutraceuticals and pharmaceutical formulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]