Publications by authors named "Maria-Cruz Figueroa-Espinoza"

The use of sourdough for bread production involves fermentation, which is dominated by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeast. Sourdough can be inoculated with a starter culture or through a food matrix containing microorganisms to initiate sourdough fermentation. Sourdough is used as leavening agent for bread making, and metabolites produced by LAB and yeast confer a specific aroma and flavor profile to bread, thus improving its sensory attributes.

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Lipid oxidation is a major concern in the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical sectors. The degradation of unsaturated lipids affects the nutritional, physicochemical, and organoleptic properties of products and can lead to off-flavors and to the formation of potentially harmful oxidation compounds. To prevent or slow down lipid oxidation, different antioxidant additives are used alone or in combination to achieve the best possible efficiency with the minimum possible quantities.

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A strange cutoff phenomenon of a series of protocatechuic acid alkyl esters had been noticed using the conjugated autoxidizable triene (CAT) assay. Two parabolic shapes of antioxidant activities of protocatechuic acid alkyl esters described as ″the double cutoff effect″ have been speculated as a result of an oxidative driving force generated in the aqueous phase. The aim of this research was to investigate the double cutoff effect using various types of oxidation driving forces in different CAT-based assays.

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Phytoprostanes (PhytoPs) and phytofurans (PhytoFs) are isoprostanoids that result from the peroxidation of α-linolenic acid and are biomarkers of oxidative stress in plants and humans. These compounds exhibit several interesting biological activities (e.g.

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Anthocyanins are water-soluble phenolic pigments. However, their poor solubility in lipidic media limits their use. This hurdle can be overcome with the lipophilization of anthocyanins, which consists of adding an aliphatic chain to a hydrophilic compound, in order to increase its solubility in lipids.

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Natural deep eutectic solvents (NaDES) are new natural solvents in green chemistry that in some cases have been shown to allow better extraction of plant bioactive molecules compared to conventional solvents and higher phenolic compound absorption in rodents. However, there is a serious lack of information regarding their in vivo safety. The purpose of this study was to verify the safety of a NaDES (betaine:glycerol (1:2 mole ratio) of water) extract from green coffee beans, rich in polyphenols.

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Regardless of the applications: therapeutic vehicle or membrane model to mimic complex biological systems; it is of a great importance to develop simplified, reproducible and rapid model assays allowing for a relevant assessment of the liposomal membrane oxidation and therefore antioxidant activity of selected molecules. Here, we describe a new and high-throughput assay that we called "Vesicle Conjugated Autoxidizable Triene (VesiCAT)". It is based on specific UV absorbance spectral properties of a new phospholipid probe, synthesized with natural conjugated eleostearic acid extracted from Tung oil.

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The addition of antioxidants is one of the strategies to inhibit lipid oxidation, a major cause of lipid deterioration in foods leading to rancidity development and nutritional losses. However, several studies have been reported that conventional antioxidant assays, e.g.

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The green chemistry era has pushed the scientific community to investigate and implement new solvents in phenolic compounds (PC) extraction as alternatives to organic solvents, which are toxic and may be dangerous. Recently, deep eutectic solvents (DES) have been applied as extraction solvents for PC. They have the advantages of biodegradability and ease of handling with very low toxicity.

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Hibiscus sabdariffa flowers represent an interesting source of anthocyanins, one of the most important plant pigments, which are responsible of the intense red color of the calyces, and have potential as natural colorants for food applications. Nevertheless, anthocyanins are highly hydrosoluble and unstable compounds. On this basis, the aim of this work was to increase the lipophilicity of the hibiscus anthocyanins by lipophilization, in order to obtain amphiphilic colorants, which could be easily incorporated in lipid-rich food matrices.

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Hibiscus sabdariffa L. is a worldwide consumed plant, principally after infusion of its dried sepals and calyces, which are usually discarded. Nevertheless, they represent a potential source of natural bioactive compounds, e.

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Tannins are natural antioxidants found in plant-based foods and beverages, whose amphiphilic nature could be useful to both stabilize emulsions and protect unsaturated lipids from oxidation. In this paper, the use of tannins as antioxidant emulsifiers was studied. The main parameters influencing the stability of emulsions (i.

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The polar paradox predicts that hydrophobic antioxidants are more active in emulsions than their hydrophilic homologues, thus assuming a linear dependency between hydrophobicity and antioxidant capacity. In contrast, we formulate in this paper an alternative hypothesis assuming a possible nonlinear dependency. To verify this so-called "nonlinear hypothesis", the antioxidant capacity of a homologous series of rosmarinic acid and its alkyl esters (methyl, butyl, octyl, dodecyl, hexadecyl, octadecyl, and eicosyl) was evaluated using a newly developed conjugated autoxidizable triene (CAT) assay.

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The lipophilization of polar antioxidants such as phenolics is an efficient way to enhance their solubility in apolar media. Thus, in emulsified systems, lipophilized antioxidants are supposed to locate at the lipid/aqueous phase interface and to lead to a better protection of unsaturated lipids. Herein, the antiradical activity of chlorogenic acid (5-CQA) and its corresponding esters with seven fatty alcohols (from methanol to eicosanol) have been achieved using the well-known 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method.

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Lipid oxidation in dispersed lipids is prevalent at the oil-water interface where lipid hydroperoxides are decomposed into free radicals by transition metals. Free radical scavenging antioxidants are believed to be most effective in lipid dispersions when they accumulate at the oil-water interface. The surface activity of antioxidants could be increased by their conjugation to hydrocarbon chains.

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Lipophilization is the esterification of a lipophilic moiety (fatty acid or fatty alcohol) on different substrates (phenolic acid, sugar, protein, ...

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The overall objective of this research was to find a new way to valorize rye bran, by producing a gellifier from the enzymatic solubilization of arabinoxylans (AX). The effects of three pure endo-xylanases from Aspergillus niger (Xyl-1), Talaromyces emersonii (Xyl-2), and Bacillus subtilis (Xyl-3) and of Grindamyl S100 (GS100), a commercial enzyme preparation containing a Xyl-1 type endo-xylanase, were tested on rye bran to study the solubilization of water-unextractable arabinoxylans (WUAX). Eight different extrusion-treated rye brans were also used as substrates to find the best physical treatment to facilitate enzymatic arabinoxylan (AX) solubilization.

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