Bioactive compounds preservation in functional flour production from Cordia dodecandra A. DC fruit: Impact of drying method and pretreatment

Abstract

During the production of functional flours, bioactive compounds are affected by processing, and their bioactivity preservation is crucial for future applications. Using the ciricote fruit Cordia dodecandra A. DC as study model., convective dried (CD) peels, freeze dried (FD) peels, and pulps pretreated with ascorbic acid, favored the preservation of total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoids (TF) and antioxidant activity (AA) over the non-pretreated ones. CD and FD processes did not present effects on TPC and AA of pulp and peel flours extracts. The pretreatment prevented the losses of the phenolic compounds rosmarinic acid and nepetoidin A and B, analyzed by UPLC-DAD-ESI-MS. The ciricote flours (pulp, peel, and seed) were rich in protein, low in fat, and preserved valuable Vitamin C content. The pretreated CD process represented a viable technology to obtain functional flours while preserving their compounds useful for both pharmaceutical and food applications. Keywords: phenolics, convective drying, freeze drying, ascorbic acid, functional flours.