Evaluation of nutraceutical properties in local tomato populations

DI PAOLA-NARANJO R.D.; OTAIZA, S.N.; BARONI, M.VERÓNICA; PERALTA, I.; VALLE, E.M.; CARRARI, F.; ASIS, RAMON

Potrero de Funes, San Luis

Congreso; XLVII Reunión Anual Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2011

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

Tomato is one of the most important source of nutraceutical compounds to the western diet. In this work, we assessed the antioxidant metabolites composition in mature tomatoes from local populations and their biological activity, in order to identify the active components responsible of their nutraceutical properties. Antioxidant metabolites from tomato hydrophilic extracts were determined by HPLC-DAD-MS/MS. In vitro antioxidant capacity (AC) was determined by TEAC and FRAP methods. Biological activity was evaluated using a Saccharomyces cerevisiae model exposed to oxidative stress with H2O2. Three out of seventeen cultivars showed the highest AC and biological activity. Multivariate analyses showed that chlorogenic acid, vitamin C and rutin contents are strongly associated to AC and biological activity. These activities are dependent also of antioxidant metabolite composition, which showed significant difference between cultivars. Based on these results, we conclude that chlorogenic acid, vitamin C and rutin are the most important bioactive components which contribute to the tomatoes AC. So far, our current results point out the importance of analyzing the entire metabolite profile, in addition to the use of in vivo assays to understand differences in AC of tomatoes, which should be extensive to other food products.