Abstract:

Pomegranates are widely researched fruits for their nutritional and health benefits as well as their organoleptic properties. Pomegranate juices are rich in vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. In addition, pomegranate juices contain potentially bioactive compounds and they are a great source of phenolic compounds such as flavonoids and phenolic acids. The use of second quality pomegranate for vinegar production can be a proper method to reduce losses due to discard of fruits. There has been growing interest in the beneficial health effects of certain fruits, wines and their by-products, like vinegars. In this study, the main phenolic compounds of pomegranate vinegars were determined by HPLC–DAD–ESI-MS. Diode-array detection (DAD) has been used for screening of the different classes of phenolic compounds, whereas MS and MSn fragmentation data were employed for their structural characterization. Most of the compounds detected were mainly anthocyanins such as delphinidin, cyanidine and pelargonidine, and ellagitannins such as ellagic acid, punicalagin and punicaline. Additionally, phenolic acids were detected. Antioxidant activities of pomegranate vinegars were measured by using the DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl) and ABTS (2,2′-azino-bis-3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) assays. The results showed strong correlations between antioxidative capacities and total phenolic content of pomegranate vinegars.

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