Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) and COMPETE/QREN/EU for financial support to this work (research project PTDC/AGR-ALI/110062/2009) and to CIMO (strategic project PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2011). L. Barros and J.C.M. Barreira also thank to FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE for their grants (SFRH/BPD/4609/2008 and SFRH/BPD/72802/2010, respectively).
POCTEP — Programa Cooperação
Transfronteiriça España–Portugal 2007–2013 através dos projeto “Mejora de la competitividad del sector
agrario de Castilla y León y Norte de Portugal através de la innovación
y el desarrollo de productos diferenciados de alto valor”.
The search for foods that might improve health or reduce disease risk, has been progressively gaining interest. Mushroom could be examples of these foods, presenting the additional advantage of being recognized as a delicacy. This feature might place mushrooms in the pharma-nutrition interface. Herein, eight different mushroom species were characterized in terms of nutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, fat, individual sugars, fatty acids) and bioactive compounds (tocopherols, carotenoids, organic acids and phenolic compounds) with recognized antioxidant properties. These medicinal properties are often related with the antioxidant potential presented by mushroom extracts. Boletus regius was the species with the highest levels of carbohydrates (88.79 g/ 100 g dw) and PUFA (56.55%), bioactive compounds such as tocopherols (763.80 µg/100 g dw), citric acid (3.32 g/ 100 g dw) and phenolic compounds (23.49 mg/ 100 g dw), including two chrysin derivatives, presenting also the highest antioxidant activity. The identified bioactive compounds might be used as nutraceuticals to prevent chronic diseases related with oxidative stress. Furthermore, all tested species are edible, and could be incorporated directly in diet acting as functional foods.
To increase the potential and better exploring of grape seeds that are an important wine-industrial waste, oils
of ten traditional Portuguese grape varieties were evaluated in relation to their vitamin E content (tocopherols and tocotrienols), fatty acid profile, as well as, antioxidant properties. Our results showed that the grape-seed oils were a good source of γ-tocotrienol (499–1575 mg/kg), α-tocopherol (85.5–244 mg/kg) and α-tocotrienol (69–319 mg/kg). Concerning fatty acid profile, linoleic (C18:2cc), oleic (C18:1), palmitic (C16:0) and stearic (C18:0) acids were the predominant. Grape-seed oils demonstrated to be a good source
of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) (63.64–73.53%), whereas monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and saturated fatty acid (SFA) ranged between 14.19–21.29% and 11.64–14.94%, respectively. Interesting values
of DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activities were also obtained. This study demonstrated that these seeds may be reused and their oils incorporated in other food products, taking into account the compounds
with positive effects on human health that are present in their composition.
