Flavonoid Compounds in Foods

Genome-wide analysis of flavonoid biosynthetic genes in Musaceae (Ensete, Musella, and Musa species) reveals amplification of flavonoid 3',5'-hydroxylase

Flavonoids in Musaceae are involved in pigmentation and stress responses, including cold resistance, and are a component of the healthy human diet. Identification and analysis of the sequence and copy number of flavonoid biosynthetic genes are valuable for understanding the nature and diversity of flavonoid evolution in Musaceae species. In this study, we identified 71-80 flavonoid biosynthetic genes in chromosome-scale genome sequence assemblies of Musaceae, including those of Ensete glaucum, Musella lasiocarpa, Musa beccarii, M. acuminata, M. balbisiana and M. schizocarpa, checking annotations with BLAST and determining the presence of conserved domains. The number of genes increased through segmental duplication and tandem duplication. Orthologues of both structural and regulatory genes in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway are highly conserved across Musaceae. The flavonoid 3',5'-hydroxylase gene F3'5'H was amplified in Musaceae and ginger compared with grasses (rice, Brachypodium, Avena longiglumis, and sorghum). One group of genes from this gene family amplified near the centromere of chromosome 2 in the x = 11 Musaceae species. Flavonoid biosynthetic genes displayed few consistent responses in the yellow and red bracts of Musella lasiocarpa when subjected to low temperatures. The expression levels of MlDFR2/3 (dihydroflavonol reductase) increased while MlLAR (leucoanthocyanidin reductase) was reduced by half. Overall, the results establish the range of diversity in both sequence and copy number of flavonoid biosynthetic genes during evolution of Musaceae. The combination of allelic variants of genes, changes in their copy numbers, and variation in transcription factors with the modulation of expression under cold treatments and between genotypes with contrasting bract-colours suggests the variation may be exploited in plant breeding programmes, particularly for improvement of stress-resistance in the banana crop.

Astringency and its sub-qualities: a review of astringency mechanisms and methods for measuring saliva lubrication

Astringency is an important mouthfeel attribute that influences the sensory experiences of many food and beverage products. While salivary lubricity loss and increased oral friction were previously believed to be the only astringency mechanisms, recent research has demonstrated that nontactile oral receptors can trigger astringency by responding to astringents without mechanical stimulation. Various human factors have also been identified that affect individual responses to astringents. This article presents a critical review of the key research milestones contributing to the current understanding of astringency mechanisms and the instrumental approaches used to quantify perceived astringency intensity. Although various chemical assays or physical measures mimic in-mouth processes involved in astringent mouthfeel, this review highlights how one chemical or physical approach can only provide a single measure of astringency determined by a specific mechanism. Subsequently, using a single measurement to predict astringency perception is overly idealistic. Astringency has not been quantified beyond the loss of saliva lubrication; therefore, nontactile receptor-based responses must also be explored. An important question remains about whether astringency is a single perception or involves distinct sub-qualities such as pucker, drying, and roughness. Although these sub-quality lexicons have been frequently cited, most studies currently view astringency as a single perception rather than dividing it into sub-qualities and investigating the potentially independent mechanisms of each. Addressing these knowledge gaps should be an important priority for future research.

Molecular basis of the formation and removal of fruit astringency

Astringency is a dry puckering mouthfeel mainly generated by the binding of tannins with proteins in the mouth. Tannins confer benefits such as resistance to biotic stresses and have antioxidant activity, and moderate concentrations of tannins can improve the flavor of fruits or their products. However, fruits with high contents of tannins have excessive astringency, which is undesirable. Thus, the balance of astringency formation and removal is extremely important for human consumption of fruit and fruit-based products. In recent years, the understanding of fruit astringency has moved beyond the biochemical aspects to focus on the genetic characterization of key structural genes and their transcriptional regulators that cause astringency. This article provides an overview of astringency formation and evaluation. We summarize the methods of astringency regulation and strategies and mechanisms for astringency removal, and discuss perspectives for future exploration and modulation of astringency for fruit quality improvement.

Sensorial Perception of Astringency: Oral Mechanisms and Current Analysis Methods

Understanding consumers' food choices and the psychological processes involved in their preferences is crucial to promote more mindful eating regulation and guide food design. Fortifying foods minimizing the oral dryness, rough, and puckering associated with many functional ingredients has been attracting interest in understanding oral astringency over the years. A variety of studies have explored the sensorial mechanisms and the food properties determining astringency perception. The present review provides a deeper understanding of astringency, a general view of the oral mechanisms involved, and the exciting variety of the latest methods used to direct and indirectly quantify and simulate the astringency perception and the specific mechanisms involved.

Tannins in Food: Insights into the Molecular Perception of Astringency and Bitter Taste

Astringency and bitterness are organoleptic properties widely linked to tannin compounds. Due to their significance to food chemistry, the food industry, and to human nutrition and health, these tannins' taste properties have been a line of worldwide research. In recent years, significant advances have been made in understanding the molecular perception of astringency pointing to the contribution of different oral key players. Regarding bitterness, several polyphenols have been identified has new agonists of these receptors. This review summarizes the last data about the knowledge of these taste properties perceived by tannins. Ultimately, tannins' astringency and bitterness are hand-in-hand taste properties, and future studies should be adapted to understand how the proper perception of one taste could affect the perception of the other one.

Interaction study between wheat-derived peptides and procyanidin B3 by mass spectrometry

Tannins have the ability to complex and precipitate proteins, being particularly reactive towards the proline-rich ones. The main structural feature of the wheat peptides responsible for the onset of Celiac Disease (CD) is their high content in proline residues. The aim of this work was to characterize the binding between a common food tannin (procyanidin B3) and different wheat-derived peptidic fractions. For this, seven peptide mixtures were obtained after in vitro digestion of a wheat gliadins crude extract and further characterized by LC-ESI-MS/MS. Several soluble B3-peptide complexes were identified by ESI-MS. The peptides involved in complex formation varied in terms of their size and diversity in CD epitopes. Although binding selectivity of procyanidin B3 towards peptides containing CD epitopes was not found, the major complexes contained or could contain immunoreactive peptides. This study highlights the potential beneficial effects of food polyphenols as a nutritional approach in the modulation of CD.

Molecular progress in research on fruit astringency

Astringency is one of the most important components of fruit oral sensory quality. Astringency mainly comes from tannins and other polyphenolic compounds and causes the drying, roughening and puckering of the mouth epithelia attributed to the interaction between tannins and salivary proteins. There is growing interest in the study of fruit astringency because of the healthy properties of astringent substances found in fruit, including antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, antiallergenic, hepatoprotective, vasodilating and antithrombotic activities. This review will focus mainly on the relationship between tannin structure and the astringency sensation as well as the biosynthetic pathways of astringent substances in fruit and their regulatory mechanisms.

Evolution of phenolic compounds from color and flavor problems to health benefits

Early studies focused on the negative effects on color and flavor of foods, followed by exploration of the antioxidant properties and the associated health benefits. The growing body of evidence suggests that plant-based polyphenols may help prevent or delay the onset of a multiplicity of diseases. Newer work suggests that a variety of polyphenols can alter the expression of genes in the inflammatory pathway. Data also show that the absorption of the polyphenols is very limited. Insulin resistance and endothelial and mitochondrial dysfunction are hallmarks of the metabolic syndrome and aging and occur at the early stages of the disease. There is limited clinical evidence that certain polyphenolic metabolites by virtue of their anti-inflammatory activities can improve insulin sensitivity and endothelial and mitochondrial function, suggesting that polyphenols are good for disease prevention. The goal of this review is to summarize the evolution and emphasize the potential benefits of polyphenols.

Interaction of plant polyphenols with salivary proteins

Tannins are polyphenols that occur widespread in plant-based food. They are considered to be part of the plant defense system against environmental stressors. Tannins have a number of effects on animals, including growth-rate depression and inhibition of digestive enzymes. Tannins also have an effect on humans: They are, for example, the cause of byssinosis, a condition that is due to exposure to airborne tannin. Their biological effect is related to the great efficiency by which tannins precipitate proteins, an interaction that occurs by hydrophobic forces and hydrogen bonding. Two groups of salivary proteins, proline-rich proteins and histatins, are highly effective precipitators of tannin, and there is evidence that at least proline-rich proteins act as a first line of defense against tannins, perhaps by precipitating tannins in food and preventing their absorption from the alimentary canal. Proline plays an important role in the interaction of proline-rich proteins with tannins. In contrast, it is primarily basic residues that are responsible for the binding of histatins to tannin. The high concentration of tannin-binding proteins in human saliva may be related to the fruit and vegetable diet of human ancestors.

Inhibitory effects of some natural products on metal-induced lipid oxidation in cooked fish

Divalent metal ions (Fe2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Ni2+, and Mn2+) induced lipid oxidation in cooked, but not in raw fish. The extent of lipid oxidation, measured by the production of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBRS), was increased with higher concentrations of iron, zinc, and nickel, but was decreased with increasing concentrations of copper and manganese. The natural products: ellagic acid, tannic acid, myricetin, and quercetin, inhibited lipid oxidation in cooked fish. The enhanced lipid oxidation caused by cupric ions (10(3) pmol/100 g fish) was also inhibited by the natural products. The degree of inhibition in copper-treated fish, however, was less than that in fish that had no added copper. The inhibition was concentration dependent. The antioxidative potency of the various natural products was independent of the type of metal ion-induced lipid oxidation. Ellagic acid was the most potent antioxidant (75.7-83.9%), followed by tannic acid (60.4-77.3%), myricetin (52.9-70.4%), and quercetin (32.6-44.2%).

Studies of the possible transference of flavonol antioxidants from the diet to the tissue lipids of rats

1. The oxidative stability of lipids in the tissues (erythrocytes, liver and depot fat) from vitamin E-deficient rats was not improved by feeding these animals, for a period of 39–55 days before killing, on a vitamin E-free diet richly supplemented with the flavonoid antioxidants quercetin (3,5,7,3',4'-pentahydroxyflavone) and flavone (3,7,8,2',5'-pentahydroxy-6-tert.-butyl flavone).

2. Addition of α-tocopherol (in the form of α-tocophery1 acetate) to the diet relieved, as expected, the investigated symptoms of vitamin E deficiency and greatly improved the stability of the tissue lipids.

3. Quercetin and flavone, when added in vitro to liver homogenate or to extracted adipose tissue, strongly retarded oxidation. It was concluded that those flavonols either were not absorbed by the animals or were destroyed in the body.