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Characterization of Industrial Onion Wastes (Allium cepa L.): Dietary Fibre and Bioactive Compounds

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Abstract

The food industry produces a large amount of onion wastes, making it necessary to search for possible ways for their utilization. One way could be to use these onion wastes as a natural source of high-value functional ingredients, since onion are rich in several groups of compounds, which have perceived benefits to human health. The objective of this work is to gain knowledge of any differences between the different onion wastes obtained from industry and non-commercial bulbs to use them as food ingredients rich in specific compounds. The results showed that brown skin and top–bottom could be potentially used as functional ingredient rich in dietary fibre, mainly in insoluble fraction, and in total phenolics and flavonoids, with high antioxidant activity. Moreover, brown skin showed a high concentration of quercetin aglycone and calcium, and top–bottom showed high concentration of minerals. Outer scales could be used as source of flavonols, with good antioxidant activity and content of dietary fibre. However, inner scales could be an interesting source of fructans and alk(en)yl cystein sulphoxides. In addition, discarded onions (cvs Recas and Figueres) could be used as a good source of dietary fibre, and cv Recas also as a source of phenolics compounds.

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Abbreviations

ACSOs:

alk(en)yl cystein sulphoxides

DF:

Dietary fibre

DM:

Dry matter

DP:

Degree of polymerization

FOS:

Fructooligosaccharides

FRAP:

Ferric reducing ability assay

GAE:

Galic acid equivalents

ICP-MS:

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

IDF:

Insoluble dietary fibre

MCSO:

(+)-S-methyl-L-cysteine sulphoxide

NSC:

non-structural carbohydrates

PCSO:

(+)-S-propyl-L-cysteine sulphoxide

PECSO:

trans-(+)-S-1-propenyl-L-cysteine sulphoxide

QE:

Quercetin equivalents

SDF:

Soluble dietary fibre

TDF:

Total dietary fibre

TFA:

Trifluoroacetic acid

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by funding from Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (AGL2003-09138-C04-01). We thank CEBACAT (Asociación Catalana de Productores-Comercializadores de Cebolla, Spain) for supplying the raw materials, SIDI (Servicio Interdepartamental de Investigación) for the mineral content analysis. Vanesa Benítez would also like to thank Cranfield University for use of their facilities and Dr. Gemma Chope for her assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Química Agrícola, Facultad de Ciencias/Instituto de Ciencias de la Alimentación (CIAL), Campus de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Vanesa Benítez, Esperanza Mollá, María A. Martín-Cabrejas, Yolanda Aguilera, Francisco J. López-Andréu & Rosa M. Esteban

  2. Plant Science Laboratory, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, UK

    Katherine Cools & Leon A. Terry

Authors
  1. Vanesa Benítez
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  2. Esperanza Mollá
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  3. María A. Martín-Cabrejas
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  4. Yolanda Aguilera
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  5. Francisco J. López-Andréu
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  6. Katherine Cools
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  7. Leon A. Terry
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  8. Rosa M. Esteban
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Correspondence to Vanesa Benítez.

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Benítez, V., Mollá, E., Martín-Cabrejas, M.A. et al. Characterization of Industrial Onion Wastes (Allium cepa L.): Dietary Fibre and Bioactive Compounds. Plant Foods Hum Nutr 66, 48–57 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-011-0212-x

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