Development and Characterization of Functional Cookies Enriched with Chestnut Shells Extract as Source of Bioactive Phenolic Compounds

• Published in: Foods Vol. 12; no. 3; p. 640
• Main Authors: Pinto, Diana, Moreira, Manuela M, Vieira, Elsa F, Švarc-Gajić, Jaroslava, Vallverdú-Queralt, Anna, Brezo-Borjan, Tanja, Delerue-Matos, Cristina, Rodrigues, Francisca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 02-02-2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Analysis; Antioxidants; Armature (Botany); Bioactive compounds; bioactivity; Biological activity; Carbohydrates; Castanea sativa; Chestnut; Chloride; Clean technology; Composition; Cookies; Dietary minerals; Employment; Flavonoids; Food science; functional food; Functional foods; Functional foods & nutraceuticals; Health promotion; Liquid chromatography; Materia medica, Vegetable; Nutrition research; nutritional composition; Phenolic acids; phenolic compounds; Phenols; Physiological aspects; Plant extracts; Properties; sensory analysis; Sensory evaluation; Sensory properties; Shells; Sodium; Portugal; France; Europe; Germany; phenolic compounds; functional food; bioactivity; Castanea sativa; nutritional composition; sensory analysis
• ISSN: 2304-8158; 2304-8158
• DOI: 10.3390/foods12030640

Chestnut (
) shells (CSs), an undervalued agro-industrial biowaste, have arisen as a source of bioactive compounds with promising health-promoting effects. This study attempted, for the first time, to develop a functional food, namely cookies, using a CS extract obtained by an eco-friendly technology (subcritical water extraction). The cookies were characterized regarding their nutritional composition, total phenolic and flavonoid contents (TPC and TFC, respectively), antioxidant/antiradical activities, phenolic profile, and sensory evaluation. The results demonstrated that the CS-extract-enriched cookies were mainly composed of carbohydrates (53.92% on dry weight (dw)), fat (32.62% dw), and fiber (5.15% dw). The phenolic profile outlined by HPLC-PDA revealed the presence of phenolic acids, flavonoids, and hydrolysable tannins, attesting to the high TPC and TFC. The in vitro antioxidant/antiradical effects proved the bioactivity of the functional cookies, while the sensory evaluation unveiled excellent scores on all attributes (≥6.25). The heatmap diagram corroborated strong correlations between the TPC and antioxidant/antiradical properties, predicting that the appreciated sensory attributes were closely correlated with high carbohydrates and phenolic compounds. This study encourages the sustainable recovery of antioxidants from CSs and their further employment as an active nutraceutical ingredient in functional cookies.