Phenolic compounds in staple plants

Abstract

A staple food is consumed regularly. It is a dominant constituent in the diet and is a major supplier of energy and nutrients. Staple foods vary from place to place, but are typically inexpensive, starchy foods that supply one or more of the three macronutrients needed for human health: carbohydrate, protein and fat. Staple foods mostly are from cereals such as wheat, barley, rye, maize, rice, or starchy root vegetables such as potato, yam, taro, cassava, sago (derived from the pith of the sago palm tree), and fruits such as breadfruit and plantains. The minor compositions of staple foods are minerals (phosphorous, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, etc.), vitamins and phenolic compounds. Rice, wheat, maize, barley, and rye are the dominant staple foods in the world. A number of studies have been carried out to investigate the phenolic compounds in those staple foods that are described in this chapter. Phenolic acids are secondary metabolites widely distributed in the plant kingdom and are second only to flavonoids in terms of their dominance. Cereals, including barley, oats and wheat, are known to contain a wide range of phenolic acids that belong to benzoic and cinnamic acid derivatives. These include ferulic, caffeic, p-hydroxybenzoic, protocatechuic, pcoumaric, vanillic and syringic acids. This chapter also provides phenolic content data in other staple plants such as barley, rye, potato, yam and sago. The composition and amounts of phenolic compounds in staple plants are important for their contribution to color, sensory attributes and nutritional and antioxidant properties of foods. These natural antioxidants are known to exhibit a wide range of biological effects including antibacterial, antiviral and anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, antithrombotic and vasodilatory activities. As the world population is increasing, the amount of staple food production and consumption is also increasing; therefore staple plants together with vegetables and fruits have an important role in fulfilling human need for antioxidant. Moreover, the increasing number of staple plant byproduct such as bran, is a potential source of phenolic compounds. © 2012 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.