Food Chemistry 173 (2015) 462–467

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Food Chemistry
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem

Influence of cooking on the levels of bioactive compounds in Purple

Majesty potato observed via chemical and spectroscopic means
M. Adília Lemos a,⇑, Maryam M. Aliyu a, Graham Hungerford b
a
Food and Life Sciences, School of Science, Engineering and Technology, University of Abertay Dundee, Bell Street, Dundee DD1 1HG, UK
b
HORIBA Jobin Yvon IBH Ltd, 45 Finnieston Street, Glasgow G3 8JU, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Tubers rich in phytochemicals can exhibit a potential health benefit. This work aims at studying the rel-
Received 6 May 2014 ative effect of different domestic cooking techniques by monitoring the level of total phenolic compounds
Received in revised form 6 October 2014 (TP), total anthocyanins (TA) and anti-oxidant activity (AOA) on a variety of pigmented potatoes. Raw
Accepted 9 October 2014
purple potatoes are a good source of anthocyanins (219 mg/kg FW) and the level of these compounds
Available online 18 October 2014
increased using different cooking techniques, with the exception of baking. However, the levels of phe-
nolic compounds (originally 209 mg GAE/100 g FW) decreased in the cooked potatoes. Although potatoes
Keywords:
contain different antioxidants in this work the antioxidant activity seems to be related to the levels of
Anthocyanins
Total phenolics
phenolic compounds present in the pigmented potato. The fact that some of the compounds present fluo-
Anti-oxidant activity resce enabled both steady state and time-resolved fluorescence techniques to be assessed as a non
Time-resolved fluorescence techniques destructive means of monitoring. This elucidated the presence of different components (via spectral
deconvolution and time-resolved emission spectra). Their relative contribution to the fluorescence emis-
sion was found to be affected by the different cooking process, with a longer wavelength emission
appearing to relate to reflect the presence of anthocyanins.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction flesh. Purple Majesty potato (purple skin/purple flesh) is a cultivar

registered on the British Potato Variety Database that has been
Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is one of the most important food introduced in Scotland. The interest in studying this variety stems
crops in the world and the tubers are a good source of carbohy- from the tubers’ richness in phytochemicals, including high levels
drates (starch), proteins and vitamin C. As a product of plant origin of anthocyanins. Stushnoff et al. (2008) analysed several existing
they also contain secondary metabolites (phytochemicals), which cultivars including Purple Majesty potato in order to characterise
are proven to have health benefits (Ezequiel, Singh, Sharma, & the antioxidant profile for the Colorado potato breeding program.
Kaur, 2013); meaning that potatoes can be considered a functional These researchers determined the total phenolic content, antioxi-
food. Polyphenolic compounds are a large group of phytochemicals dant capacity and also investigated the levels of Vitamin C of the
and depending on their chemical structure they can be divided into selected cultivars. Their study identified chlorogenic acid isomers
the following classes; flavonoids, phenolic acids, tannins, stilbenes as being the main phenolic compound present in Purple Majesty.
and lignans (Ignat, Volf, & Popa, 2011). Polyphenols are known for The study provided also anthocyanin’s profile of the Purple Majesty
their anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial proper- potato (the same cultivar used on the present work) they identified
ties (Brown, 2005; Dziri et al., 2012; Thompson et al., 2009). 5 petunidin glycoside and a single glycoside of each of the delphin-
Research has showed that their consumption can decrease the risk idin, peonidin and malvidin aglycones. However, there appears to
of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and can- be little data concerning the domestic usage, ie effect of cooking
cer (Han et al., 2006; Sancho & Pastore, 2012; Teow et al., 2007; techniques on the levels of total phenolics (TP), anthocyanins
Thompson et al., 2009). Within European markets white potatoes (AA) and anti-oxidant activity (AOA) on this specific variety pro-
are very popular, but in recent years different coloured varieties duced in UK.
of potatoes are appearing. These include; red skin/white flesh, Anthocyanins (classified as flavonoids) are responsible for the
red skin/red flesh, purple skin/marble flesh and purple skin/purple colour found in the pigmented potatoes. Their stability can, how-
ever, be affected by several factors such as pH, light, oxygen,
enzyme activity, concentration, ascorbic acid and sugars
⇑ Corresponding author. (Cavalcanti, Santos, & Meireles, 2011; Patras, Brunton, O’Donnell,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.10.064
0308-8146/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M.A. Lemos et al. / Food Chemistry 173 (2015) 462–467 463

& Tiwari, 2010). It should be noted that the content of phenolic 72 h. Freeze dried samples were kept at 20 °C until further
compounds/anthocyanins and their stability is also dependent on analysis.
factors such as genotype, agronomic factors, storage conditions
after the harvest, processing and cooking methods (Brown, Durst, 2.3. Determination of the level of bioactive components and
Wrolstad, & De Jong, 2008; Burmeister et al., 2011; Eichhorn & antioxidant activity
Winterhalter, 2005; Ieri, Innocenti, Andrenelli, Vecchio, &
Mulinacci, 2011; Lachman et al., 2012; Stushnoff et al., 2008). The pH shift method adapted from Ribereau-Gayon and Stone
Although there are several studies demonstrating the effect of Street (1965) was used to estimate the anthocyanin content in
these compounds on health, which is responsible in classifying the samples of purple potato and has been previously employed
potatoes as a functional food, we need to take in consideration that in other works (Lachman et al., 2012). In order to determine the
the levels of polyphenols found in raw and cooked tubers will be total anthocyanin content, 0.1 g of the dried purple potato was
different. As well as assessing the quantity of anthocyanins via re-suspended in 20 mL of 50% methanol:water (v/v) mixture and
the pH shift method (Moncada et al., 2004; Petrov, Gomes, then filtered. The absorbance of each sample at both pH < 1.0 and
Parola, & Pina, 2009; Quina et al., 2009), the fact that they can exhi- pH 3.5 was measured in a spectrophotometer (Shimadzu UV-
bit fluorescence, the behaviour of which depends on their form 1650PC) at 700 nm (which allows background correction) and
(Moreira et al., 2003), provides a means by which to assess the 520 nm (to determine the anthocyanin content) against a blank.
influence of cooking method on this class of compounds. In fact In order to obtain the absorbance (A) related to the total anthocy-
we have previously used time-resolved fluorescence techniques anins the following equation was used:
to study anthocyanins in purple potato, both using freeze dried
powder and tuber slices via time-resolved fluorescence microscopy A ¼ ðA520 —A700 ÞpH0:6 —ðA520  A700 ÞpH3:5 ð1Þ
(Lemos, Aliyu, & Hungerford, 2012). Considering the Beer–Lambert law the concentration of total
The stability and form of anthocyanins is highly dependent on anthocyanins (g/L) was calculated according to Eq. (2):
their local environment, particularly in relation to pH (Fossen,
1
Cabrita, & Andersen, 1998; Petrov et al., 2009; Tirupula, Balem, Anthocyanin concentration ðg=LÞ ¼ ðA  MWÞ  e1  l ð2Þ
Yanamala, & Klein-Seetharaman, 2009) and we have previously
used this in a fluorescence microscopy study (Lemos et al., 2012) where A is the absorbance (calculated from Eq. (1)), MW is the
to assess the location of these compounds in potato slices. The molecular weight of a reference pigment (Cyanindin-3-glucoside)
use of time-resolved fluorescence, shows promise as the fluores- – 449.2 g/mol, e is the molar absorptivity (extinction factor
cence lifetime is independent of concentration, thus not affected 26,900 L cm1 mol1), l is the optical path length in centimetres
by photobleaching (these compounds can be easily photodegrad- (1 cm). Then, and considering the dry and fresh weight (FW) of
ed) enabling a non destructive and potentially ‘‘remote’’ sensing the different samples, the total anthocyanin content was calculated
of the sample to be carried out. In this work we assess the effect and expressed as mg Cyanindin-3-glucoside/kg FW.
of cooking on the relative overall levels of bioactive components The total quantity of phenolics was measured by the Folin–Cio-
and make use of fluorescence spectroscopy to help elucidate any calteu method. Briefly, 0.1 g of freeze dried potato was re-sus-
relative changes in the form of the fluorescing compounds induced pended in 20 mL of 50% methanol:water (v/v). This solution was
by cooking. filtered and 100 lL was added to 5 mL of a 1:10 dilution of
Folin–Ciocalteu reagent and 0.9 mL of distilled water. After 5 min
3.5 mL of a Na2CO3 (115 g L1) was added and the mixture was left
2. Materials and methods in the dark, at room temperature, for 2 h. The absorbance of the
solution was measured at a wavelength of 765 nm against a blank.
2.1. Chemicals and reagents The optical density was compared to a standard curve (y = 0.001x;
R2 = 0.998) prepared with 50–500 mg L1 of gallic acid and the
Hydrochloric acid (HCl) was provided by Rathburn Chemical result expressed as mg L1 gallic acid equivalents (GAE). Results
(Walkerburn, Peebleshire, UK); Ethanol, Di-sodium hydrogen are expressed as mg GAE/100 g FW.
phosphate (Na2HPO4), Methanol, Acetone, Acetic acid (glacial), Antioxidant activity was determined using ferric reducing anti-
Di-sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), were purchased from Fisher Scien- oxidant potential (FRAP). In summary, 0.1 g of dried purple potato
tific (Loughborough, UK) and Citric acid, Folin’s reagent, Gallic acid was re-suspended in 20 mL of 80:20 (v/v) acetone/water. 30 ll of
and Ferrous sulphate (FeSO4) were obtained from Sigma (Poole, this sample was added to 1 mL of FRAP reagent and incubated in
Dorset, UK). a water bath at 37 °C for 4 min followed by measurement of absor-
bance at 593 nm against a blank. The Optical density was com-
2.2. Tubers and cooking techniques pared to the standard curve (y = 0.4895x; R2 = 0.9931) for ferrous
sulphate (FeSO4) solutions, with concentrations between 0 and
Purple Majesty potatoes were kindly supplied by Albert Bartlett 10.0 mM. Results are presented as Fe II (mM) produced/100 g FW.
Ltd, Scotland, UK and stored in a cool and dark room throughout
the experiments. This variety is registered in the British Potato 2.4. Fluorescence measurements
Variety Data Base as follows (i) Parentage – All blue X ND2008-2;
(ii) Breeder – San Luis Valley Research Center: (iii) Breeder’s agent Time-resolved fluorescence measurements (using time-corre-
– Albert Bartlett and Son Ltd, Airdrie. This cultivar has been pro- lated single-photon counting) were performed on a HORIBA Scien-
duced and marketed in the UK. tific DeltaFlex equipped with a DeltaDiode laser excitation sources.
Tubers were cooked unpeeled using different cooking tech- Time-resolved emission spectra were obtained recording time-
niques and the time established according to tenderness. This was resolved fluorescence decays at 5 nm intervals for fixed durations
assessed by piercing the potatoes with a fork (as usually done in over the required wavelength range. This equipment has a nominal
domestic cooking). The following cooking times/temperatures were time resolution of 25 ps. The resulting decays were then ‘‘sliced’’ in
used: 25 min (boiling); 35 min (steaming); 1 h at 200 °C (baking) the wavelength-intensity plane at different time intervals, using
and 5 min 900 W (Microwave). Samples of raw and cooked potatoes DataStation software, combining the specified temporal data to
were frozen overnight and freeze dried (using a Micro-Modulyo) for produce the corresponding emission spectra. These are shown nor-
464 M.A. Lemos et al. / Food Chemistry 173 (2015) 462–467

malised to emphasise the spectral shape. Combining all the tempo- 120
change in TA
ral data resulted in a spectrum equivalent of the steady state emis-

percentage change relative to raw

100 change in TP
sion (smoothing applied for clarity). From the unnormalised area, change in AOA
80
the percentage contribution (amplitude) of each ‘‘slice’’ to the
overall steady state emission could be obtained to make a relative 60
comparison. Spectral decomposition of the steady state emission 40
into component (Gaussian) spectra was performed using Origin 20
software.
0

3. Results -20
-40
3.1. Relative changes in the levels of TP, TA and antioxidant activity -60
-80
The overall composition of TP, TA and AOA present in raw and
cooked potatoes is shown in Table 1. -100 bake boil microwave steam
Purple potatoes are rich in anthocyanins and this variety regis-
Fig. 1. Change in bioactive content in purple potato, relative to uncooked, seen
tered levels of 219 mg/kg FW. Overall, the cooking techniques using different cooking methods. (For interpretation of the references to colour in
(boil, steam and microwave) were responsible for an apparent this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
increase in the amount of anthocyanins (expressed as Cyanindin-
3-glucoside, C-3-g), when compared with the raw potatoes. It
should be noted, however, that the level of anthocyanins in baked rescence techniques to ascertain if the different cooking techniques
potatoes was not that different to the content present in raw influenced the observed fluorescence behaviour. This could then be
potatoes. used to enable differences in composition to be inferred. Time-
Assessing the effect of the different cooking techniques on the resolved emission spectra (TRES) were recorded as they could give
levels of total phenolics present in Purple Majesty potato led to both temporal and spectral information concerning the fluores-
the following ranking (expressed as GAE/100 g FW) in order of cence emission. Here this technique is used to show relative differ-
greatest amount first gave; uncooked potato (209) > boiled potato ences, rather than to rigorously attribute spectra and decay times
(138) > Steamed (130) > Microwave (74) > baked (38). In fact a to species, between the cooking techniques. The overall spectra
decrease in the amount of total phenolic compounds was observed (obtained from the TRES measurement) are presented offset in
for all the cooked potatoes. Fig. 2 (top panel) for the uncooked and different cooked potato
It is known that potatoes (mainly the pigmented varieties) are samples. Slight differences in spectral shape are observed, notably
rich sources of anti-oxidants (Brown, Culley, Yang, Durst, & the presence of a shorter wavelength shoulder on that for the
Wrolstad, 2005; Lachman & Hamouz, 2005), which is why we baked sample. To help further elucidate this all the spectra were
investigated the effect of the different cooking methods on the decomposed into Gaussian component spectra (four were required
anti-oxidant activity. The ranking, related to the antioxidant activ- to give an acceptable fit, R2 > 0.99, and the analysis is given in the
ity of the unpeeled potatoes (expressed as mM Fe II produced/ Supporting information) and is indicative of the presence of several
100 g FW), was boiled (79) > uncooked and steamed (67) > micro- fluorescent species. The relative contribution of the component
waved (61) > baked (51). An increase of the antioxidant activity spectra to the overall spectrum is also compared in Fig. 2 (bottom
in boiled potatoes and a decrease in the baked potatoes was panel). This shows that the contribution of the two longer wave-
observed, when compared with uncooked potatoes (see Table 1). length emissions, in comparison to the two shorter wavelength
The relative increase or decrease of bioactive components ana- emissions, is roughly equal in the raw sample and is the minor con-
lysed and the antioxidant activity is summarised in Fig. 1, indicat- tribution in the baked sample. However it is the major contribution
ing the percentage change in relation to uncooked potato. in the other samples and appears to correspond to the trend
Although the number of data points is not large, it should be noted observed for the total anthocyanins (Fig. 1). Thus, for simplicity
that, a similar trend is found between the behaviour in the change of bringing out contrast between samples, we shall consider the
in the amount of total phenolics and the antioxidant activity. This combined contribution of the two shorter wavelength components
is as expected and also the change in total anthocyanins, mainly as well as the combined two longer wavelength emissions for use
because of the microwave result, does not adhere directly to this as a tool in this work.
trend. From the earlier chemical analysis there appeared to be a trend
between the total phenolics and antioxidant activity. Investigating
3.2. Spectral investigation of composition if the two spectral regions exhibited any trend in relation to this or
the total anthocyanins, a plot of these quantities in the cooked
As some of the components present in the potatoes exhibit fluo- potatoes, normalised to that in the raw potato, was made against
rescence, an investigation was performed using time-resolved fluo- that of the contribution of the longer wavelength emission. Note

Table 1
Bioactive component content of the potato samples comparing uncooked with the different cooking methods. The values are the mean of at least three repeat measurements and
the standard deviation is given as an indication of the error.

Cooking method
Raw Bake Boil Microwave Steam
Total phenolics* 209 ± 36 38 ± 8 138 ± 4 74 ± 1 130 ± 4
Total anthocyanins** 219 ± 17 226 ± 15 438 ± 6 459 ± 66 431 ± 18
Antioxidant activity*** 67 ± 5 51 ± 3 79 ± 5 61 ± 10 67 ± 2
*
mg GAE/100 g FW.
**
mg C-3-g/kg FW.
***
Fe II (mM)/100 g FW.
 M.A. Lemos et al. / Food Chemistry 173 (2015) 462–467 465

steam 2.2
microwave TP
2.0
boil TA

relative "amount" of bioactive

bake 1.8
normalised intensity / au

raw
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4

550 600 650 700 750 0.2

wavelength / nm 0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10 1.15
relative "amount" of long wavelength emission
short wavelength [1+2], long wavelength [3+4] 60
Fig. 3. Plot showing relative ‘‘amounts’’ of the longer wavelength emission and the

% contribution to total emission

100
total anthocyanins (TA) and phenolics (TP) normalised to their values in raw potato.
4

80 55
3 bake time / ps
intensity / %

1.0 0-130
60 130-1170
50 1170-2470
2470-5068
40 normalised amplitude 0.8 5068-12866

2 45
20 0.6
4
3
2 1
1 0 40 0.4
raw bake boil microwave steam
method
0.2
Fig. 2. Top panel, plot showing the overall component fluorescence spectra from an
uncooked potato sample and those cooked using different methods (shown offset).
Bottom panel, plot showing the contribution of the Gaussian component spectra to 0.0
the overall fluorescence emission, comparing the uncooked potato to the different 540 560 580 600 620 640 660 680
cooking methods (bar chart left hand axis). The numbers 1–4 relate to components
of increasing wavelength – see Supporting information. The relative proportion of
wavelength / nm
the sum of the two short wavelength emissions to that of the longer wavelength
emissions is also shown (right hand axis).
100

only one emission is considered as they are inversely proportional

80
(see Fig. 2). The outcome is shown in Fig. 3 and, although this
should probably be considered as a preliminary study requiring
amplitude / %

further investigation, can be indicative of a better relation between 60

this emission and the total anthocyanins, rather than that of the
total phenolics.
40
The time-resolved emission spectra, an example of which is
given in Fig. 4 with the others provided as Supporting information,
time (ps)
show the temporal resolution of the shorter and longer wavelength 20 0-130
130-1170
emissions. From this form of measurement it is clear that the 1170-2470
longer wavelength emission occurs predominantly at shorter times 2470-5068
5068-12866
after excitation (i.e. is a shorter-lived species) and that the shorter 0
bake boil microwave steam
wavelength emission exhibits a longer fluorescence decay time.
Comparing the contribution made the observed fluorescence in
method
the cooked samples (Fig. 4) again, the sample that was baked Fig. 4. Top panel, an example TRES result obtained from a sample of baked Purple
shows more of a contribution from the longer-lived, shorter wave- Majesty potato. Bottom panel, comparison of the contribution of the (unnormalised)
length, emitting species. From these analyses the presence of TRES slices to the overall fluorescence emission from the different cooking
shorter-lived, longer wavelength emitting species, appear to corre- techniques – see Supporting information for all TRES data. (For interpretation of
the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
late with higher quantities of anthocyanins (Figs. 1 and 3, Table 1).
version of this article.)

4. Discussion cooking interferes with the level of these compounds. It is also evi-
dent that as well as the traditional chemical analysis the use of fluo-
The results obtained clearly demonstrate the presence of bioac- rescence, with its potential for remote and non destructive testing
tive compounds in the uncooked Purple Majesty potato and that is promising in assessing these samples. It should be reiterated that
466 M.A. Lemos et al. / Food Chemistry 173 (2015) 462–467

the purpose here is to consider the overall levels of the bioactive methods can interfere the content of phenolic compounds, there
compounds to see if these change during the cooking process and seems to be a positive correlation with antioxidant activity, not
if they can be linked to the overall antioxidant activity and moni- only for tubers but also for other produce investigated (carrots,
tored spectroscopically as well as chemically. onions, broccoli and white cabbage). Several studies reported the
There are contradictory results in the literature related to the effect of cooking and storage on the levels of compounds which
effect of cooking on the levels of anthocyanins and total phenolics. possess antioxidant activity. These also looked at the levels of anti-
Our results are partly in accordance with a study performed by oxidant compounds present in different potato cultivars and their
Lachman et al. (2012), which found that the levels of anthocyanins relation with antioxidant activity (Al-Saikhan, Howard, & Miller,
in different cultivars of pigmented flesh potatoes were higher after 1995; Brown et al., 2003, 2005; Liu, Han, Lee, Hsu, & Hou, 2003;
the cooking. However, our study shows a decrease in the levels of Stushnoff et al., 2008; Lachman et al., 2009).
anthocyanins in baked potatoes. This difference may relate to the Different ways of cooking vegetables can interfere with the lev-
baking time and temperature used (180 °C during 40 min using els of antioxidants present and consequently with the anti-oxidant
halved potatoes compared to our baking conditions of 200 °C for activity (Blessington et al., 2010; Stushnoff et al., 2008; Turkmen
1 h using a whole potato). However, it should be noted that, for et al., 2005). Brown et al. (2008) found that the antioxidant activity
instance, Perla, Holm, and Jayanty (2012) found a reduction in was affected by cooking methods and observed, like us, that boiled
the amount of anthocyanins present in purple potatoes after cook- potatoes exhibited the highest level of antioxidant activity, when
ing. These sometimes contradictory accounts found in the litera- compared to the other cooking methods (including raw potatoes).
ture can be because of both different cooking methods and Although we cannot ignore the contribution of other compounds
extraction procedures. On the other hand, it should be pointed (e.g. vitamin C, although probably a minor contribution) to the
out that the composition of anthocyanins is dependent on various total antioxidant activity it looks like that the trend for the antiox-
factors such as, cultivar, climatic conditions and altitude, as well as idant activity in our study relates to the phenolic compounds pres-
the storage conditions of the tubers (Lachman et al., 2012). ent in the tubers (Fig. 1). Moreover, the aim of this investigation is
Although the objective of this study is not to investigate the differ- not to provide a full profile of antioxidants and their contribution
ent types of anthocyanins present in the potatoes, tubers can con- for the antioxidant activity but to try to elucidate the possibility
tain anthocyanins that are more heat stable than others (Kim et al., of using a spectroscopic method for the assessment of phenolic
2012). The spectroscopic results, which we report, appear in keep- compounds, which is discussed below.
ing with this. In general the spectral data are supportive of the composition
The increase of anthocyanins in the tubers after cooking can be results. However, it should be kept in mind the observed spectrum
attributed to the changes observed in the potato matrix during the is complicated, as different fluorescing species and forms will be
cooking. Lemos et al. (2012) observed, using fluorescence imaging, present. The main anthocyanin in purple potato is petanin
a disruption of the cells in microwave purple potatoes (the same (Stushnoff et al., 2008) and the fluorescence behaviour of these
cultivar as used in this work) when compared with the raw pota- types of compounds can be highly dependent on pH, for example
toes. The anthocyanins in the cooked potato were more spread (Drabent, Pliszka, & Olszewka, 1999; Freitas, Quina, Fernandes, &
out and consequently this made these compounds easier to extract. Maçanita, 2010; Moreira et al., 2003; Wigand, Dangles, &
The levels of phenolics present in vegetables varies consider- Brouillard, 1992). Longer wavelength emission has previously been
ably and the effect of cooking methods on the phenolics present ascribed to a base form (Moreira et al., 2003) or to complexation
in vegetables is also dependent of the vegetable tested (Turkmen, (Wigand et al., 1992), while shorter wavelength emission may
Sari, & Velioglu, 2005). The reduction of total phenolics observed emanate from an acid form (Freitas et al., 2010). Hence the effect
in this study with the Purple Majesty are in accordance with results of cooking can induce changes in the local molecular environment,
previously published by Perla et al. (2012), although they found which can be manifest in the spectral shape. Previously we have
higher amounts of total phenolics in cooked red flesh cultivars, suggested that a change in contribution of the fluorescing species
when compared to the raw tubers. Blessington et al. (2010) noticed can occur upon cooking (Lemos et al., 2012) and again in this work,
higher levels of total phenolics in baked, fried and microwaved it is the differences between the data from the different methods
potato compared to boiled or raw potatoes. Again, it should be that is of important, rather than the absolute assignment of spec-
pointed out that the conflicting results can probably be explained tral features and their fluorescence lifetime. Although the makeup
by the method used, along with the cooking times and tempera- of the spectra is complex, the results show that it is possible to
tures (our study used whole potatoes and the study mentioned simplify them to use as a tool. This is possible, both in terms of
used small cubes of potatoes). Navarre, Shakya, Holden, and spectral and temporal properties and should allow for further in-
Kumar (2010) observed an increase of total phenolics in cooked depth studies to be performed in the future, with the advantage
young potato tubers. In fact the maturity/age and storage condi- that the samples can be non destructively optically addressed.
tions of the potatoes seem to interfere with the amount of phenolic Generally there is a correspondence between how long the fluores-
present in the tubers. cence lives for and the wavelength; shorter-lived fluorescence
Cooking interferes not only on the levels of bioactive com- emanating from longer wavelength emission and vice versa.
pounds, but also (as expected) on the antioxidant activity of the The increased presence of longer wavelength (shorter-lived)
processed tubers. Tubers contain different compounds that can emission correlates well with the presence of anthocyanins and
express antioxidant activity, such as phenolic compounds (includ- is in keeping with other reports of their fluorescence (Moreira
ing anthocyanins), carotenoids and vitamin C. Brown, Wrolstadt, et al., 2003). The results from the baked sample (Fig. 2) are closer
Durst, Yang, and Clevidence (2003) investigated the levels of anti- to those of the raw sample than to the other cooked samples, as
oxidant activity in red and purple flesh potatoes and noticed that expected from the quantitative analyses of their composition. In
the antioxidant activity was significantly higher than in white principle, we expect that the fluorescence should be mainly related
fleshed potatoes. It should be pointed out that, although vitamin to the presence of anthocyanins and the main influence of the dif-
C can contribute to potato’s antioxidant activity, its contribution ferent cooking methods can be assessed by the proportion of the
is only around 13% of the total, and the levels of this nutrient can longer wavelength emissions. Thus, it appears that the use of fluo-
drop significantly with tuber’s storage and/or processing (Abong, rescence is apt for studying differences between the samples in
Okoth, Imungi, & Kabira, 2011; Brown, 2005; Dale, Griffiths, & this aspect and can provide an optical means by which to qualita-
Todd, 2003). Faller and Fialho (2009) stated that although cooking tively monitor changes in composition.
 M.A. Lemos et al. / Food Chemistry 173 (2015) 462–467 467

5. Summary Faller, A. L. K., & Fialho, E. (2009). The antioxidant capacity and polyphenol content
of organic and conventional retail vegetables after domestic cooking. Food
Research International, 42, 210–215.
Purple Majesty potato is a rich source of polyphenolic com- Freitas, A. A., Quina, F. H., Fernandes, A. C., & Maçanita, A. A. L. (2010). Picosecond
pounds, including anthocyanins and has anti-oxidant activity. Boil- dynamic of the protoropic reactions of 7-hydroxyflavylium photoacids
anchored at an anionic micellar surface. Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 114,
ing, steaming and microwaving are cooking techniques that, in the
4188–4196.
case of this variety produced in Scotland, led to an increase of the Fossen, T., Cabrita, L., & Andersen, Ø. M. (1998). Colour and stability of pure
amount of anthocyanins that could be extracted. All cooking meth- anthocyanins influenced by pH including the alkaline region. Food Chemistry, 63,
435–440.
ods used in this study had a detrimental effect on the levels of TP,
Han, K.-Y., Sekikawa, M., Shimada, K.-I., Hashimoto, M., Hashimoto, N., Noda, T.,
but overall the anti-oxidant activity was not affected. The use of Tanaka, H., & Fukushima, M. (2006). Anthocyanin-rich purple potato flake
fluorescence spectroscopy is promising in adding increased sensi- extract has antioxidant capacity and improves antioxidant potential in rats.
tivity and elucidating, non destructively, the differences between British Journal of Nutrition, 96, 1125–1133.
Ieri, F., Innocenti, M., Andrenelli, L., Vecchio, V., & Mulinacci, N. (2011). Rapid HPLC/
the cooking techniques. It also indicates that a change in the pro- DAD/MS method to determine phenolic acids, glycoalkaloids and anthocyanins
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