Browsing by Author "Chamorro, Franklin"
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- Camellia japonica flowers as a source of nutritional and bioactive compoundsPublication . Pereira, Antia Gonzalez; Cassani, Lucia; Liu, Chao; Li, Ningyang; Chamorro, Franklin; Barreira, João C.M.; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.In recent decades, plants have strengthened their relevance as sources of molecules potentially beneficial for health. This underpinning effect also arises from the extensive research that has been conducted on plants that are typically undervalued, besides being scarcely used. This is the case with Camellia japonica in Galicia (NW Spain), where, despite its abundance, it is exclusively used for ornamental purposes and has been studied only for its proximate composition. Thus, the present study was conducted on several additional parameters in the flowers of eight C. japonica varieties. Our results show that camellia has a high nutritional value, with carbohydrates as the most abundant macronutrients followed by a moderate protein content (4.4-6.3 g/100 g dry weight) and high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (especially & omega;-3 fatty acids, which represent 12.9-22.7% of the total fatty acids), raising its potential for use for nutritional purposes. According to the thermochemical characterization and elemental composition of camellia, the raw material has poor mineralization and low nitrogen content, but high percentages of volatile matter and high carbon-fixation rates, making it a promising alternative for biofuel production. Furthermore, preliminary analysis reveals a high concentration of different bioactive compounds. As a result of these findings, camellias can be used as food or functional ingredients to improve the nutritional quality of food formulations.
- Characterization of Phenolic Compounds of Arnica montana Conventional ExtractsPublication . Garcia-Oliveira, Paula; Chamorro, Franklin; Donn, Pauline; Garcia-Perez, Pascual; Seyyedi-Mansour, Sepidar; Silva, Aurora; Echave Álvarez, Javier; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Cassani, Lucia; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.Arnica montana L. (Asteraceae family) is a plant commonly used in traditional medicine, and several reports have characterized this plant’s bioactivities, especially its phenolic compounds. These compounds are well known for their numerous beneficial biological properties. Consequently, industry stakeholders from the feed, food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical sectors are seeking extracts rich in phenolic compounds, which could be interesting for the development of bio-based applications. The objective of the present study was to characterize the phenolic profile of this species to lay the groundwork for further optimization studies to obtain the highest amount of phenolic compounds. Therefore, A. montana was extracted with an ethanol/water ratio of 80:20 (v/v) at room temperature for 1 h, and phenolic compounds were identified and quantified through UPLC (HPLC Dionex Ultimate 3000) with a mass detector (TSQ Quantis). In the extract, phenolics belonging to different groups were identified, namely eriodictyol-O-glucuronide (flavanone), hispidulin and luteolin (flavones), kaempferol and 6-methoxykaempferol, (flavonols), p-coumaric, feruloylquinic, caffeoylquinic, and dicaffeoylquinic isomers (hydroxycinnamic acids). However, only four of them could be quantified: kaempferol and the three hydroxycinnamic acids. The total phenolic content (mg/g of dry sample) was estimated to be 27.34 mg/g, with the most prevalent compounds being the dicaffeoylquinic acids (accounting for 79.5% of the total phenolics). It has been demonstrated that dicaffeoylquinic acids present anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities, which have been linked to several beneficial effects. Thus, obtaining phenolic-rich extracts of A. montana may allow us to exploit this plant’s significant biological properties, and it could be a new ingredient for developing new applications in the nutraceutical, cosmetic, and/or pharmaceutical industries.
- Emerging technologies to extract Fucoxanthin from Undaria pinnatifida: microwave vs. ultrasound assisted extractionsPublication . Lourenco-Lopes, Catarina; Carreira-Casais, Anxo; Carpena Rodríguez, María; Barral Martínez, Marta; Chamorro, Franklin; Jiménez López, Cecília; Cassani, Lucia; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.Macroalgae are an extensive resource for the obtention of bioactive compounds, mainly phenolic compounds, phlorotannins, and pigments. Fucoxanthin (Fx) is the most abundant pigment present in brown algae and has shown several useful bioactivities that can be used to fortify products in the food and cosmetic industries. Nevertheless, to date, there is still insufficient literature reporting on the extraction yield of Fx from U. pinnatifida species from green technologies. In this regard, the present study aims to optimize the extraction conditions to obtain the highest Fx yield from U. pinnatifida through emerging techniques, namely microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE). These methods will be compared with the conventional methodologies of heat-assisted extraction (HAE) and Soxhlet-assisted extraction (SAE). According to our results, even though the extraction yield could be slightly higher when using MAE than UAE, the Fx concentration obtained from the alga was double when using UAE. Thus, the Fx ratio in the final extract reached values of 124.39 mg Fx/g E. However, the optimal conditions should also be considered since UAE needed 30 min to perform the extraction, whereas MAE was able to obtain 58.83 mg Fx/g E in only 3 min and 2 bar, meaning less energy expenditure and minimum cost function. To our knowledge, this study obtains the highest concentrations of Fx ever reported (58.83 mg Fx/g E for MAE and 124.39 mg Fx/g E for UAE), with low energy consumption and short times (3.00 min for MAE and 35.16 min for UAE). Any of these results could be selected for further experiments and proposed for industrial scaling-up.
- Nutraceuticals and oxidative stressPublication . Donn, Pauline; Seyyedi-Mansour, Sepidar; Perez-Vazquez, Ana; Barciela, Paula; Fraga-Corral, Maria; Chamorro, Franklin; Cassani, Lucia; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.Several studies have found a link between oxidative stress and a variety of noncommunicable diseases including diabetes, obesity, aging, Down syndrome, cancers, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases. All these pathologies are aided by oxidative stress, which is caused by the excessive production of free radicals or insufficient elimination of free radicals. To avoid, reduce, or eliminate this imbalance favoring prooxidants in organs and cells, one of the healthier and promising approaches is to use antioxidant compounds like nutraceuticals, which can scavenge the excessive free radicals and restore the balance. Nutraceuticals are dietary compounds that include dietary fibers, prebiotics, probiotics, polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, polyphenols, and spices. Some of them have antioxidant activity, which can react with the free electron available in the outer layer of free radicals to make the unstable compounds more stable while avoiding free radicals’ proliferation and the induced damage to the different metabolisms that occur in the human body because of oxidative stress. Thus, each nutraceutical class performs specific functions in managing the onset of oxidative stress. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to sort out the mechanisms by which different classes of nutraceuticals can have beneficial effects on oxidative stress and related pathologies via their biological properties. However, it also observes that the efficacy of nutraceutical compounds can only be guaranteed if they can maintain their properties during production, preservation, consumption, digestion, and use by the various targeted active sites. Thus, it shows that the concepts of bioavailability and bio-accessibility are key factors for the effectiveness of nutraceuticals on oxidative stress when consumed by humans.
- Occurrence of fatty acids in Camellia genus: extractions technologies and potential applications: a reviewPublication . Pereira, Antia Gonzalez; Carpena Rodríguez, María; Cassani, Lucia; Chamorro, Franklin; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.The Camellia genus (Theaceae) comprises more than 200 species, including the most famous Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, Camellia oleifera Abel, and Camellia japonica (L.). The commercial interest in these plants linked to their seed fatty acid content increased in the last decades due to their quality and health-enhancing properties, which significantly depend on different aspects such as environmental conditions. Nowadays, the traditional extraction methods of fatty acids from camellias include mechanical press extraction and solvent extraction, which have a high environmental impact. Therefore, it is essential to develop extraction techniques to achieve the maximum lipid yield with the minimum environmental impact and cost. These innovative methods include enzymatic extraction, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE). However, they are often limited to the laboratory or pilot scale due to economic or technical bottlenecks. This article aims to explore recent advances and innovations related to the extraction of fatty acids from Camellia.
- Untargeted metabolomics and in vitro functional analysis unravel the intraspecific bioactive potential of flowers from underexplored Camellia japonica cultivars facing their industrial applicationPublication . Pereira, Antia Gonzalez; Cassani, Lucia; Oludemi, Taofiq; Chamorro, Franklin; Calhelha, Ricardo C.; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.; Barros, Lillian; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Lucini, Luigi; Garcia-Perez, PascualThe Camellia genus comprises a vast array of underexplored medicinal plants that merit a systematic valorization to exploit their potential as natural sources of phytochemicals with associated health-promoting properties. In this work, flower extracts from eight poorly characterized Camellia japonica L. cultivars were subjected to polyphenol profiling through untargeted metabolomics combined with in vitro functional analysis. Anthocyanins, mostly represented by cyanidin 3-O-glycosides, flavones, and flavonols, were found as the major constituents of C. japonica flowers, together with hydroxycinnamic acids, tyrosols, alkylphenols, and stilbenes, which were detected for the first time in this species. The application of multivariate statistics revealed a flower colordependent fingerprint of C. japonica cultivars, featuring anthocyanins and other flavonoids as metabolite markers associated with color-flowered cultivars with respect to white-flowered ones. The accumulation of anthocyanins, especially reported in ‘Eugenia de Montijo’ flowers, was highly correlated with the cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory properties of the derived extracts, including AGS, Caco-2, and MCF7 cancer cell lines. Moreover, the flavones accumulation reported in ‘Carolyn Tuttle’ extracts was also associated with high rates of free-radical scavenging activity, as well as a potent cytotoxicity against the Caco-2 cell line. In general, C. japonica anthocyanin-enriched flower extracts were revealed as promising candidates for the industrial production of polyphenols with associated biological activities of high interest for critical sectors in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.