Authors: Sarah Bazzocco Ismo Mattila Sylvain Guyot Catherine M G C Renard AnnaMarja Aura
Publish Date: 2008/10/15
Volume: 47, Issue: 8, Pages: 442-452
Abstract
Proanthocyanidins PAs in apples are condensed tannins comprised mostly of −epicatechin units with some terminal +catechins PAs especially those having a long chainlength are absorbed in the upper intestine only to a small extent and are passed to the colon In the colon they are subjected to microbial metabolism by colonic microbiota In the present article the ability of human microbiota to ferment apple PAs is studied Freezedried fruit preparations apple enzymatically digested apple isolated cellwalls isolated PAs or ciders from two varieties Marie Ménard and Avrolles containing PAs of different chain lengths were compared Fermentation studies were performed in an in vitro colon model using human faecal microbiota as an inoculum The maximal extent of conversion to known microbial metabolites was observed at late time point for Marie Ménard cider having short PAs In this case the initial dose also contributed to the extent of conversion Longchain PAs were able to inhibit the in vitro microbial metabolism of PAs shown as low maxima at early time points Presence of isolated PAs also suppressed SCFA formation from carbohydrates as compared with that from apple cell wall or faecal suspension without substrates The low maximal extents at early time points suggest that there is a competition between the inhibitory effect of the PAs on microbial activity and the ability to convert PAs by the microbiotaHannele Virtanen is thanked for conducting SCFA analysis Annika Majanen Siv Matomaa Marita Ikonen and Airi Hyrkäs are gratefully acknowledged for the skilful technical assistance Dr Riitta PuupponenPimiä is thanked for fruitful comments on the manuscript European Commission STREPFLAVO FoodCT2004513960 is acknowledged for financial support for the study
Keywords: