Study of strategies to improve the bioavailability of anthocyanins

• Ano de defesa: 2024
• Autor(a) principal: Nascimento, Amanda Lais Alves Almeida
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa; Ciência e Tecnologia de Alimentos
• Palavras-chave em Português: Açai - Processamento; Compostos fenólicos; Antocianinas - Aspectos de saúde; Fermentação; Ciência e Tecnologia de Alimentos
• Link de acesso: https://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/32704; https://doi.org/10.47328/ufvbbt.2024.386

Anthocyanins are phenolic compounds present in many natural products and known for their health benefits. These benefits are directly related to their bioaccessibility, which is, the ability of those substances to reach the intestine after the digestive process, being absorbed and used by the organism. In this context, this thesis aims to investigate strategies to increase the bioaccessibility of anthocyanins for human consumption. The first article consists of a comprehensive review of technological tools and strategies to improve the stability, bioaccessibility and bioavailability of anthocyanins in food systems. Additionally, we highlight methodologies for evaluating their bioaccessibility and bioavailability, which vary between in vitro and in vivo approaches. We observed that in vitro methodologies are the most widely used due to their relative financial accessibility, lower complexity, and ability to provide rapid results. Among the most used strategies to increase the stability of anthocyanins during the digestion process, microencapsulation stands out. This technique proved to be effective in protecting against pH variations and enzymatic action, resulting in a general improvement in the in vitro bioaccessibility. The review also addresses the influence of the food matrix and types of processing over those parameters, indicating that these strategies can have positive or negative impacts on bioaccessibility and bioavailability. Therefore, more studies are needed to delve on how such strategies, as fermentation, for example, effectively assist in the formulation of functional foods. Thus, in the second chapter we detailed the evaluation of three types of fermentation (spontaneous, lactic, and alcoholic) on the bioaccessibility of anthocyanins from açai. Furthermore, we evaluated the cytotoxic effect of fermented açai extracts before and after simulated gastrointestinal digestion (SD) in three cell lines. Dried açai extracts produced from spontaneous fermentation (SF) for 24 h presented greater bioaccessibility of phenolics (52.68%) and cyanidin-3 glycoside (27.01%) compared to unfermented açai. Similarly, lactic acid fermentation (LF) for 72 hours improved the bioavailability of phenolics (64.49%) and cyanidin-3-rutinoside (20.00%). The fermented extracts did not presented cytotoxicity in the cell lines A549 (lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cells), HCT8 (human colon carcinoma) and IMR90 (normal human lung fibroblast), while extracts derived from 24-h alcoholic fermentation presented antioxidant and antimutagenic effects in vitro, reducing around 40% of chromosomal aberrations. This thesis highlights the relevance of processes such as microencapsulation and fermentation to increase the stability and bioaccessibility of anthocyanins, providing relevant information for the development of more effective functional foods. Keywords: Açai. Phenolic compounds. Bioaccessibility. Fermentation.