Ministry of Agriculture, Portugal (Project PRODER/FEADER/EU no. 53514), for financial support of the work and E. Pereira grant; Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support to CIMO (PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2014), CTN (RECI/AAG-TEC/0400/2012), L. Barros (BPD/107855/2015) and J.C.M. Barreira (BPD/72802/2010). And to Prof A. Chmielewski, Director of INCT, and Dr A. Rafalski, for e-beam irradiations.
Wild plants are widely recognized as high-potential sources of several bioactive compounds. Nevertheless, these natural matrices require effective decontamination steps before they might be considered for different industrial purposes. Irradiation techniques are being progressively acknowledged as feasible conservation methodologies, either for their high decontamination effectiveness, as well as for their innocuousness on most chemical and bioactive parameters of the material to be treated. Arenaria montana L. (Caryophyllaceae) is recognized for its phytochemical richness, having a relevant geographical distribution in the Southern Europe. Herein the effects of irradiation (gamma and electron beam up to 10 kGy) were evaluated by comparing the nutritional, chemical and antioxidant profiles in A. montana extracts. In general, the assayed parameters showed statistically significant variations in response to irradiation treatment. Furthermore, the performed LDA allowed identifying the antioxidant indicators as the most affected parameters in irradiated samples, especially when using the 10 kGy dose and e-beam irradiation.
