Foods and beverages made from Mexican Purple Corn: a means to increase anthocyanins’ intake | Functional Foods in Health and Disease - Online ISSN: 2160-3855; Print ISSN: 2378-7007 Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer Open Menu Functional Foods in Health and Disease - Online ISSN: 2160-3855; Print ISSN: 2378-7007 Home Food Science Publisher Functional Food Center Current Archives About About the Journal Aims and Scope Contact Editing Services Editorial Team Express Peer Review Graphical Abstract Journal Insights Privacy Statement Submissions Announcements Search Search Register Login Home / Archives / Vol. 13 No. 11 (2023): November 2023 / Research Articles Foods and beverages made from Mexican Purple Corn: a means to increase anthocyanins’ intake Authors Carmen Gabriela Mendoza-Mendoza Ramón Marcos Soto-Hernánde Ma. del Carmen Mendoza-Castillo Adriana Delgado-Alvarado Francisco Javier Sánchez-Ramírez DOI: https://doi.org/10.31989/ffhd.v13i11.1194 Abstract Background: Anthocyanins (AAs) are natural pigments and bioactive compounds that are of broad interest due to their potential beneficial effects on health. In the market, while some foods, such as berries, provide important amino acid (AA) intakes, there is a growing trend to explore new sources. In Mexico, there is the Mexican Purple Corn, a variant capable to produce AAs in all the organs of the corn ear. We overlook that the preparation of foods and beverages from these raw materials may represent the development of potential functional foods and a means to increase the dietary intake of AAs.  Methods: We used spectrophotometry to quantify the total anthocyanins content (TAC) of three foods made from purple kernels, and six beverages prepared from corn husks+corncobs or corn silks. Foods consisted of elote (Mexican street corn or corn on a cob), a snack, and tortillas, while beverages involved what we named functional beverages, infusions, and hot teas. We compared their TAC values and estimated the AAs intake.  Results: Foods and beverages exhibited total antioxidant capacities (TACs) ranging from 3.0 mg to 119.5 mg per 100 g of biomass (p ≤ 0.05). Notably, most beverages demonstrated higher TACs than foods. The corn husks+corncobs infusion recorded the highest TAC, succeeded by functional beverages derived from amino acid (AA) extracts of corn husks+corncobs (67.04 and 93.12 mg of TAC per 100 g of biomass, p ≤ 0.05). Among hot teas and infusions, maceration in the latter resulted in a higher AA extraction. For foods, TACs varied from 4.3 to 38.4 mg of TAC per 100 g of biomass, and, similar to beverages, the preparation process influenced TAC. The roasted snack exhibited a higher AA content.   Conclusion: Mexican Purple Corn shows promise as a source for foods and beverages rich in amino acids (AAs). This crop represents an option to increase the daily intake of this flavonoid, and to acquire its potential bioactive effects. On a regular day, we can obtain 95 mg of TA from 300 g of purple corn-based foods, and 750 mL of different beverages made from corn husks, corncobs, and corn silks.   Keywords: Mexican Purple Corn, anthocyanins, corn husks, corncobs, corn silks, dietary source of anthocyanins. Downloads [Abstract] [Full Article] Published 2023-11-16 Issue Vol. 13 No. 11 (2023): November 2023 Section Research Articles License Authors retain the copyright of their articles and grant the Functional Food Center (FFC) and its journals the right of first publication under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, including commercial use, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited. Authors may post and share their published work freely, provided that the original publication in this journal is acknowledged. By submitting to this journal, authors confirm that their manuscripts are original, not under consideration elsewhere, and that they hold the necessary rights to grant this license. The Functional Food Center encourages open scientific exchange and allows derivative and extended works, provided attribution to the original publication is maintained. About the Journal      Editing Services      Graphical Abstract      Journal Insights        Submissions        Editorial Team       Privacy Statement        Contact        Current        Archives   Open Journal Systems Hosting and Support by: OpenJournalSystems.com