title: Total and individual carotenoids and phenolic acids content in fresh, refrigerated and processed spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.).
abstract: The carotenoid and phenolic acid contents in fresh, stored and processed (blanched, frozen and boiled) spinach were comparatively determined by spectrophotometric and HPLC analyses. The major carotenoids identified after HPLC analysis in saponified samples were lutein (37-53μg/kg), β-carotene (18-31μg/kg), violaxanthin (9-23μg/kg) and neoxanthin (10-22μg/kg). These carotenoids were all affected by storage and/or heating. The content of carotenoids was best preserved after storage for one day at 4°C. The total phenolic content in the fresh spinach was 2088mg GAE/kg FW. After LC-MS analysis three phenolic acids were identified and quantified. These being ortho-coumaric acid (28-60mg/kg FW), ferulic acid (10-35mg/kg) and para-coumaric acid (1-30mg/kg) depending on the sample type. After storage of spinach at different temperatures (4°C or -18°C) the amount of total phenolic compounds decreased by around 20%, while the amount of individual phenolic acids increased by four times on average.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bunea
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Safety and Food Quality, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium; Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium. Electronic address: mirjana.andjelkovic@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Mirjana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Andjelkovic
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Socaciu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: Otilia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bobis
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: Madalina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neacsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Verhé
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Safety and Food Quality, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium.
authors.forename: John Van
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Camp
keywords: Carotenoids; Chromatography; Mass-spectroscopy; Phenolic compounds; Processing; Spectrophotometry; Storage