10. Determination of antitryptic factors, lectins and saponins in new regional varieties of Amaranth

MARÍA ANGELINA UÑATES; EVELINA QUIROGA; HUGO PIOLA; ELBA AGUILAR

San Luis

Congreso; XXXII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2014

Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo

Amaranth remains an active area of scientific research for both human nutritionalneeds and foraging applications. Several scientific studies suggest a somewhatconflicting picture on possible antinutritional and toxic factors in amaranth. Based on the above mentioned, the purpose of this work was to studythe some antinutrients content of the seeds flour of Amaranthus cruentus var. candil(Acc), Amaranthus hypochondriacusvar. dorado (Ahd), advanced lines of Amaranthus hypochondriacus x Amaranthus cruentus H17a (AH17a) and Amaranthus cruentus G6/17a (AcG6/17a). Thefollowing antinuntrients were determinated: i) saponins (foam index (WHO/PHARM/92559));ii) hemolityc activity assay (Duarte Correa, A et al. 1986); iii) hemagglutininor lectins assay (Do Prado, VC et al. 1980; Das Gupta, VR and Boroff, DA. 1968);and iv) antitryptic factors (Kakade, ML et al. 1974). Theobtaining results were: foam index < 100;hemolityc activity = 0 during 12h; hemagglutinin assay (minimum positiveconcentration 1/32); antitryptic factors values ranged between 5.72 and 2.00. Suchresults are within the allowed values without risk to human health. Accordingto this study, these new varieties and lines amaranth could be considered an interesting contribution to the humandiet  with high nutritional quality