Fecha de publicación: 18/11/2024 Fuente: Foods - Revista científica (MDPI) Foods, Vol. 13, Pages 3671: Quality Change of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium (Pericarps of Citrus reticulata ‘Chachi’) During Storage and Its Sex-Based In Vitro Digestive Performance
Foods doi: 10.3390/foods13223671
Authors:
Peirong Yu
Yuying Zeng
Chunyu Li
Bixia Qiu
Yuan Shi
Qixi He
Uri Lesmes
Yigal Achmon

Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium (CRP), particularly including the pericarp of Citrus reticulata ‘Chachi’ (GCP), has been widely used as a food, a dietary supplement, and traditional Chinese medicine. Despite the widespread use of traditional foods, there is limited evidence regarding the precise relationships between storage conditions, aging duration, and the digestive performance of CRP. In this study, the aim was to investigate the impact of the storage conditions on the quality of aged GCP during shelf life and to evaluate the subsequent digestive performance of corresponding GCP decoctions. Respiration in GCP was monitored by measuring oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4) gases throughout the storage simulation, with O2 and CO2 validated as prospective safety measures. Five flavonoids (hesperidin, didymin, nobiletin, tangeretin, and 3,5,6,7,8,3′,4′-heptamethoxyflavone) were determined as quality indicators, and their contents were significantly affected by the duration of the storage simulation and the aging periods of GCP. Our study also found that temperature and humidity significantly affected the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission from GCP. Eighteen compounds were proposed to show potential as descriptive measures of aging periods while eight compounds were proposed as potential indicators to discriminate among the spoilage level. Furthermore, the bioaccessibility of hesperidin ranged from ~30% to ~50% and was not significantly affected by the GCP’s aging time nor the consumer’s sex (p < 0.05). This study presents evidence for the future control of the quality of GCP and its digestive performance in males and females.