Rose Hips, a Valuable Source of Antioxidants to Improve Gingerbread Characteristics

Abstract

The present study analyzes the complex of bioactive compounds from rose hips pulp powder (RHP) obtained after separating the seeds from Rosa canina L. in order to obtain the oil. The extract prepared from RHP was characterized in terms of the total content of polyphenols, flavonoids, cinnamic acids, flavonols, carotenoids, but also the content of individual polyphenols and carotenoids, antioxidant activity, and CIELab color parameters. The effects of some salts, potentially present in foods, and pH variations were examined to predict possible interactions that could occur when adding rosehip pulp as a food component. The results turned out to be a high content of polyphenols, carotenoids and antioxidant activity. The main phenolic components are procyanidin B1, chlorogenic acid, epicatechin, procyanidin B2, gallic acid, salicylic acid, and catechin. The carotenoid complex includes all-trans-β-carotene, all-trans-lycopene, zeaxanthin, α-cryptoxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, rubixanthin, cis-β-carotene, cis-γ-carotene and cis-lycopene. The addition of CaCl₂ and NaCl to the RHP extract reduced the antioxidant activity and the strong acidic environment (pH to 2.5) decreased the antioxidant activity by 29%. The addition of rose hip powder to gingerbread has improved its general characteristics, and increased its antioxidant activity and microbiological stability, the effects of 4% RHP being the most important.

Keywords: Rosa canina L.; antioxidant activity; bioactive compounds; carotenoids; food; natural compounds; phenolic compounds.

Figure 1

The antioxidant activity of rose hip ethanolic extract in the presence of different salts and different concentrations (standard deviations are based on three replicates; different letters (a–f) designate statistically different results (p ≤ 0.05)).

Figure 2

The influences of NaCl (A), KNO₃ (B) and CaCl₂ (C) on the CIELab color parameters and the antioxidant activity of rose hip extract. L*—luminosity; a*—red/green component; b*—yellow/blue component; C*—chromaticity; H*—hue angle; ΔE*—overall difference of color; AA—antioxidant activity.

Figure 3

The dependence of antioxidant activity on pH (errors bars represent the standard deviation of three determinations; different letters ^(a,b) designate statistically different results (p ≤ 0.05)).

Figure 4

The influence of the pH on the CIELab color parameters and antioxidant parameters of rose hip extract. L*—luminosity; a*—red/green component; b*—yellow/blue component; C*—chromaticity; H*—hue angle; ΔE*—overall difference of color; AA—antioxidant activity.

Figure 5

The influences of various quantities of rose hip powder on gingerbread physicochemical and organoleptic parameters, DPPH antioxidant activity and total viable count.

Figure 6

The informational analysis for the influence of storage days on gingerbread physicochemical and organoleptic parameters, DPPH antioxidant activity and total viable count.