Colour and in vitro quality attributes of walnuts from different growing conditions correlate with key precursors of primary and secondary metabolism

Claudia Fuentealba; Ignacia Hernández; Sebastian Saa; Lea Toledo; Pamela Burdiles; Rosana Chirinos; David Campos; Patrick Brown; Romina Pedreschi

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.04.029

Colour and in vitro quality attributes of walnuts from different growing conditions correlate with key precursors of primary and secondary metabolism

Food Chem. 2017 Oct 1:232:664-672. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.04.029. Epub 2017 Apr 7.

Authors

Claudia Fuentealba¹, Ignacia Hernández², Sebastian Saa³, Lea Toledo⁴, Pamela Burdiles⁵, Rosana Chirinos⁶, David Campos⁷, Patrick Brown⁸, Romina Pedreschi⁹

Affiliations

¹ Escuela de Agronomía, Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas y de los Alimentos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Calle San Francisco s/n, La Palma, Quillota, Chile. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Escuela de Agronomía, Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas y de los Alimentos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Calle San Francisco s/n, La Palma, Quillota, Chile. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ Escuela de Agronomía, Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas y de los Alimentos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Calle San Francisco s/n, La Palma, Quillota, Chile. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁴ Escuela de Alimentos, Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas y de los Alimentos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Waddington 716, Playa Ancha, Valparaíso, Chile. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁵ Escuela de Agronomía, Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas y de los Alimentos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Calle San Francisco s/n, La Palma, Quillota, Chile. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁶ Instituto de Biotecnología (IBT), Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina - UNALM, Avenida La Molina s/n, Lima, Peru. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁷ Instituto de Biotecnología (IBT), Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina - UNALM, Avenida La Molina s/n, Lima, Peru. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁸ Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95695, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁹ Escuela de Agronomía, Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas y de los Alimentos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Calle San Francisco s/n, La Palma, Quillota, Chile. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 28490125
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.04.029

Abstract

Walnuts (Juglans regia L.) are well known for their flavour, nutritional and health properties. The light colour of walnuts is a quality attribute that leads to consumer preference. The aim of this study was to correlate attributes such as colour and antioxidant capacity with the precursors of primary and secondary metabolism. Two growing areas and four different colours of walnuts cv. Chandler from the central region of Chile were evaluated. Walnuts grown in the zone with Andes Mountains influence showed higher (p<0.05) sugar and unsaturated fatty acid contents, which could be attributed to lower minimum temperatures during seed filling. Extra light walnuts had higher (p<0.05) total phenolic compounds, antioxidant capacity and arbutin levels than amber walnuts. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that arbutin has been reported in walnuts and could provide the first insight into how enzymatic browning is prevented in the Chandler cultivar.

Keywords: Antioxidant capacity; Colour; Metabolites; Quality; Walnuts.

MeSH terms

Chile
Color*
Juglans*
Nuts
Secondary Metabolism