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Review
. 2022 Jun;87(6):2291-2309.
doi: 10.1111/1750-3841.16155. Epub 2022 May 3.

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away": The potentials of apple bioactive constituents for chronic disease prevention

Ayodeji B Oyenihi  1 , Zinash A Belay  2 , Asanda Mditshwa  3 , Oluwafemi J Caleb  4   5
Affiliations
Review

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away": The potentials of apple bioactive constituents for chronic disease prevention

Ayodeji B Oyenihi et al. J Food Sci. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Apples are rich sources of selected micronutrients (e.g., iron, zinc, vitamins C and E) and polyphenols (e.g., procyanidins, phloridzin, 5'-caffeoylquinic acid) that can help in mitigating micronutrient deficiencies (MNDs) and chronic diseases. This review provides an up-to-date overview of the significant bioactive compounds in apples together with their reported pharmacological actions against chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. For consumers to fully gain these health benefits, it is important to ensure an all-year-round supply of highly nutritious and good-quality apples. Therefore, after harvest, the physicochemical and nutritional quality attributes of apples are maintained by applying various postharvest treatments and hurdle techniques. The impact of these postharvest practices on the safety of apples during storage is also highlighted. This review emphasizes that advancements in postharvest management strategies that extend the storage life of apples should be optimized to better preserve the bioactive components crucial to daily dietary needs and this can help improve the overall health of consumers.

Keywords: health; hidden hunger; microbial safety; micronutrient deficiencies; polyphenol.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Summary of scopus search on the number of publications linked to “Postharvest treatment and storage of apples” based on the analysis of 470 documents. Source: Scopus,
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Chemical structures of polyphenols related to the multifaceted bioactivities of apples in many studies. Sources: Wojdylo et al. (2008), Rana and Bhushan (2016), and Kschonsek et al. (2018)
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
The annotation of sources, enzymes, and minerals (A), and cellular processes for the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (B)
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Technologies to extend the shelf‐life of fresh apple during postharvest
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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