title: Lipids, tocopherols, and carotenoids in leaves of amaranth and quinoa cultivars and a new approach to overall evaluation of nutritional quality traits.
abstract: Composition of lipophilic phytochemicals including fatty acids, tocopherols, and carotenoids in leaves of 6 quinoa and 14 amaranth cultivars was analyzed. The oil yields in quinoa and amaranth leaves were only 2.72-4.18%, which contained mainly essential fatty acids and had a highly favorable ω-3/ω-6 ratio (2.28-3.89). Pro-vitamin A carotenoids, mainly α- and β-carotenes, and xanthophylls, predominantly lutein and violaxanthin, were found in all samples. The primary tocopherol isomers present in both quinoa and amaranth leaves were α- and β-tocopherols. Added to the discussion on the lipophilic nutrients was the normalization of ω-3/ω-6 ratio, α-tocopherol equivalents, and carotenoids, in an attempt to establish a novel system for evaluation of the overall quality attributes of lipophilic nutrients (NQ value). The NQ value, but not the individual components, was highly correlated with all the antioxidant activities, supporting the ranking order of the potential nutritional quality of quinoa and amaranth leaves based on this new method.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Ministry of Education of China, Tianjin University of Science and Technology , Tianjin 300457, China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Xihong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Peter X
authors.initials: PX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hernandez
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Massimo F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Marcone
authors.forename: Ronghua
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tsao
mesh_terms: D027721:Amaranthus / Q000737:chemistry*; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000737:chemistry*; D027465:Chenopodium quinoa / Q000737:chemistry*; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D007536:Isomerism; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D009753:Nutritive Value; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000737:chemistry*; D024505:Tocopherols / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids; D008055:Lipids; D010936:Plant Extracts; D002338:Carotenoids; D024505:Tocopherols
keywords: DPPH; FRAP and ORAC; amaranth; carotenoids; fatty acids; leaf; nutritional quality; quinoa; tocopherols