Cargando…

Stinging Nettles as Potential Food Additive: Effect of Drying Processes on Quality Characteristics of Leaf Powders

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) is a ubiquitous, multi-utility, and under-utilized crop with potential health benefits owing to its nutritional and bioactive components. The objective of the work is to produce powders by drying wild stinging nettle leaves as a storable, low-cost functional additi...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Nallan Chakravartula, Swathi Sirisha, Moscetti, Roberto, Farinon, Barbara, Vinciguerra, Vittorio, Merendino, Nicolò, Bedini, Giacomo, Neri, Lilia, Pittia, Paola, Massantini, Riccardo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8224096/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34063844
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods10061152
_version_ 1783711824157343744
author Nallan Chakravartula, Swathi Sirisha
Moscetti, Roberto
Farinon, Barbara
Vinciguerra, Vittorio
Merendino, Nicolò
Bedini, Giacomo
Neri, Lilia
Pittia, Paola
Massantini, Riccardo
author_facet Nallan Chakravartula, Swathi Sirisha
Moscetti, Roberto
Farinon, Barbara
Vinciguerra, Vittorio
Merendino, Nicolò
Bedini, Giacomo
Neri, Lilia
Pittia, Paola
Massantini, Riccardo
author_sort Nallan Chakravartula, Swathi Sirisha
collection PubMed
description Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) is a ubiquitous, multi-utility, and under-utilized crop with potential health benefits owing to its nutritional and bioactive components. The objective of the work is to produce powders by drying wild stinging nettle leaves as a storable, low-cost functional additive to be used in bakery and ready-to-cook products. Convective drying (CD) and freeze-drying (FD) were applied on unblanched (U) or blanched (B) leaves, which were then milled to nettle powders (NPs). The obtained NPs were evaluated for selected physicochemical (moisture, color), techno-functional (flow indices, hygroscopicity), and phytochemical (pigments, phenols) characteristics as well as mineral contents. Blanching improved mass transfer and reduced the oxidative degradation of pigments during drying, but it caused a loss of total phenols content, antioxidant activity, and potassium content. As for the drying method, CD resulted in better flow properties (i.e., Carr Index and Hausner Ratio), while FD retained better the color, pigments, magnesium content, phenolic, and antioxidant parameters. Overall, the evaluated processing methods resulted in different technological properties that can allow for better evaluation of NPs as a food additive or ingredient. Among the NPs, blanched and freeze-dried powders despite showing inferior technological properties can be recommended as more suitable ingredients targeted f or food enrichment owing to better retention of bio-active components.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8224096
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-82240962021-06-25 Stinging Nettles as Potential Food Additive: Effect of Drying Processes on Quality Characteristics of Leaf Powders Nallan Chakravartula, Swathi Sirisha Moscetti, Roberto Farinon, Barbara Vinciguerra, Vittorio Merendino, Nicolò Bedini, Giacomo Neri, Lilia Pittia, Paola Massantini, Riccardo Foods Article Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) is a ubiquitous, multi-utility, and under-utilized crop with potential health benefits owing to its nutritional and bioactive components. The objective of the work is to produce powders by drying wild stinging nettle leaves as a storable, low-cost functional additive to be used in bakery and ready-to-cook products. Convective drying (CD) and freeze-drying (FD) were applied on unblanched (U) or blanched (B) leaves, which were then milled to nettle powders (NPs). The obtained NPs were evaluated for selected physicochemical (moisture, color), techno-functional (flow indices, hygroscopicity), and phytochemical (pigments, phenols) characteristics as well as mineral contents. Blanching improved mass transfer and reduced the oxidative degradation of pigments during drying, but it caused a loss of total phenols content, antioxidant activity, and potassium content. As for the drying method, CD resulted in better flow properties (i.e., Carr Index and Hausner Ratio), while FD retained better the color, pigments, magnesium content, phenolic, and antioxidant parameters. Overall, the evaluated processing methods resulted in different technological properties that can allow for better evaluation of NPs as a food additive or ingredient. Among the NPs, blanched and freeze-dried powders despite showing inferior technological properties can be recommended as more suitable ingredients targeted f or food enrichment owing to better retention of bio-active components. MDPI 2021-05-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8224096/ /pubmed/34063844 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods10061152 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Nallan Chakravartula, Swathi Sirisha
Moscetti, Roberto
Farinon, Barbara
Vinciguerra, Vittorio
Merendino, Nicolò
Bedini, Giacomo
Neri, Lilia
Pittia, Paola
Massantini, Riccardo
Stinging Nettles as Potential Food Additive: Effect of Drying Processes on Quality Characteristics of Leaf Powders
title Stinging Nettles as Potential Food Additive: Effect of Drying Processes on Quality Characteristics of Leaf Powders
title_full Stinging Nettles as Potential Food Additive: Effect of Drying Processes on Quality Characteristics of Leaf Powders
title_fullStr Stinging Nettles as Potential Food Additive: Effect of Drying Processes on Quality Characteristics of Leaf Powders
title_full_unstemmed Stinging Nettles as Potential Food Additive: Effect of Drying Processes on Quality Characteristics of Leaf Powders
title_short Stinging Nettles as Potential Food Additive: Effect of Drying Processes on Quality Characteristics of Leaf Powders
title_sort stinging nettles as potential food additive: effect of drying processes on quality characteristics of leaf powders
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8224096/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34063844
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods10061152
work_keys_str_mv AT nallanchakravartulaswathisirisha stingingnettlesaspotentialfoodadditiveeffectofdryingprocessesonqualitycharacteristicsofleafpowders
AT moscettiroberto stingingnettlesaspotentialfoodadditiveeffectofdryingprocessesonqualitycharacteristicsofleafpowders
AT farinonbarbara stingingnettlesaspotentialfoodadditiveeffectofdryingprocessesonqualitycharacteristicsofleafpowders
AT vinciguerravittorio stingingnettlesaspotentialfoodadditiveeffectofdryingprocessesonqualitycharacteristicsofleafpowders
AT merendinonicolo stingingnettlesaspotentialfoodadditiveeffectofdryingprocessesonqualitycharacteristicsofleafpowders
AT bedinigiacomo stingingnettlesaspotentialfoodadditiveeffectofdryingprocessesonqualitycharacteristicsofleafpowders
AT nerililia stingingnettlesaspotentialfoodadditiveeffectofdryingprocessesonqualitycharacteristicsofleafpowders
AT pittiapaola stingingnettlesaspotentialfoodadditiveeffectofdryingprocessesonqualitycharacteristicsofleafpowders
AT massantiniriccardo stingingnettlesaspotentialfoodadditiveeffectofdryingprocessesonqualitycharacteristicsofleafpowders