A new plant-based milk alternative of Pistacia vera geographically indicated in Türkiye: Antioxidant activity, in vitro bio-accessibility, and sensory characteristics

Zehra Mertdinç, Elif Feyza Aydar, İlayda Hızır Kadı, Evren Demircan, Sibel Koca Çetinkaya, Beraat Özçelik*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The plant-based food market is expanding and demand for novel plant-based milk alternatives is increasing. Compared to conventional milk, lower protein content, and lower sensory acceptance are some of the challenges of the plant-based milk alternative industry. This research aimed to develop novel plant-based milk from two different local pistachio varieties grown in Antep and Siirt, Türkiye that would be higher in protein, unsaturated fatty acids, and phenolic compounds, and have superior taste and sensory characteristics. Protein content, fatty acid composition by gas chromatography, phenolic profile by high-pressure liquid chromatography, total phenolic content, and antioxidant activity by spectrophotometric method, and in vitro gastrointestinal digestion along with sensory characteristics by quantitative descriptive test were evaluated. The protein contents of the prepared pistachio milk were 3.78% and 3.09% for Antep and Siirt varieties of pistachio milk, respectively. The most abundant fatty acid was oleic acid and the most abundant phenolic compounds were catechin and gallic acid. Moreover, the bio-accessibilities of total phenolic content were 201% and 213% and the bio-accessibility of total antioxidant activity was 200% and 205% for plant-based milk of Antep and Siirt pistachio, respectively. The overall sensory acceptance scores of the prepared pistachio milk were 5.6–7/10. These findings indicated that plant-based milk substitutes prepared from Antep and Siirt pistachio were higher in protein, had highly bio-accessible phenolic content, and overall accepted in terms of sensory except color challenges.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102731
JournalFood Bioscience
Volume53
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Funding

Pistachio comprises various phenolic acids and flavones such as gallic acid, quercetin, catechin, myricetin, rutin, benzoic acid, o-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, and t-cinnamic acid (Karaoglu & Tarhan, 2022). The prepared pistachio milk was obtained by water extraction of pistachio samples, therefore mainly hydrophilic phenolic compounds were detected in the APM and SPM. While gastric conditions such as acidic pH and enzymes prompted the breakdown of large compounds and provide the release of catechin and gallic acid, conditions in the intestinal phase caused the degradation of various phenolic compounds such as ferulic acid, quercetin, myricetin, syringic acid, ethyl 3,4-dihydroxybenzoate, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, and 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (Aly, Sánchez-Moya, Darwish, Ros-Berruezo, & López-Nicolás, 2022). Previously, Jurasekova, Domingo, Garcia-Ramos, and Sanchez-Cortes (2014) reported that although alkaline conditions increased the water solubility of quercetin, it also provoked oxidation and caused degradation. A similar result was observed for myricetin and Agraharam, Girigoswami, and Girigoswami (2022) stated that pH over 7.4 caused autoxidation of myricetin. Therefore, loss of ferulic acid, quercetin, myricetin, syringic acid, ethyl 3,4-dihydroxybenzoate, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, and 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid might be a result of oxidation. On the other hand, presence of gallic acid and catechin in the intestine phase indicated the high bio-accessible phenolic content of APM and SPM. Aly et al. (2022) studied total flavonoid content (TFC) of digested various types of plant-based milk substitutes in terms of total catechin equivalent and they observed 159%, 354%, and 76% bio-accessible catechin equivalent (TFC) for coconut milk, hazelnut milk, and tiger nut milk supporting the highly bio-accessible catechin content of APM and SPM.

Keywords

  • Antioxidant activity
  • Bio-accessibility
  • Fatty acid
  • Novel plant-based milk alternative
  • Phenolic profile
  • Pistachio milk

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