Open Access

ARTICLE

Digestibility, Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Pecan Nutshell (Carya illioinensis) Extracts

María Janeth Rodríguez-Roque¹, Carmen Lizette Del-Toro-Sánchez^2,*, Janet Madeline Chávez-Ayala¹, Ricardo Iván González-Vega², Liliana Maribel Pérez-Pérez², Esteban Sánchez-Chávez³, Nora Aideé Salas-Salazar¹, Juan Manuel Soto-Parra¹, Rey David Iturralde-García², María Antonia Flores-Córdova^1,*

1 Facultad de Ciencias Agrotecnológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México
2 Universidad de Sonora, Rosales y Niños Héroes S/N, Hermosillo, Son, México
3 Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo, A.C. Unidad Delicias, Delicias, Chihuahua, México

* Corresponding Authors: Carmen Lizette Del-Toro-Sánchez. Email: ; María Antonia Flores-Córdova. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Renewable Material from Agricultural Waste and By-Product and Its Applications)

Journal of Renewable Materials 2022, 10(10), 2569-2580. https://doi.org/10.32604/jrm.2022.021163

Received 30 December 2021; Accepted 11 April 2022; Issue published 08 June 2022

Abstract

Phenolic compounds are related to high biological activity, avoiding oxidation in food and human systems. Nutshells are by-products derived from the pecan nut processing that contain important amounts of phenols which biological activity must be studied. This research aimed to evaluate the antioxidant (DPPH, ABTS, FRAP and hemolysis) and anti-inflammatory activities of shell extracts from pecan nuts harvested during the crop production cycle 2018 and 2019, as well as the in vitro digestibility of their phenolic compounds, including flavonoids. Results showed that extracts from the crop production cycle 2018 obtained the highest yield, while those from 2019 contained the highest concentration of phenolic compounds, flavonoids and antioxidant capacity determined by DPPH (22.96 mmol ET), ABTS (91.55 mmol ET) and inhibition of hemolysis (92.12%). The anti-inflammatory activity exhibited an inhibition of the elastase enzyme up to 50 min and the bioaccessibility of phenolic compounds reached up to 32%. These results showed that pecan nutshell extracts are an important source of biologically active compounds, thus, they are suitable to be used as commodities in different fields such as agricultural, food and pharmaceutical industries. Future studies must be carried out in order to elucidate the activity of nutshell extracts within in vivo systems.

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