Impact of processing conditions on the phytoprostanes profile of three types of nut kernels

The goal of this work was the identification and quantification of phytoprostanes (PhytoPs) in three types of nuts: Walnut, Macadamia, and Pecan. This study represents a first approach to the relationship between the quantitative and qualitative PhytoP profiles in the Macadamia and Pecan nuts subjected to fried salt or fried honey processing. The kernels were found to contain 9-F-1t-PhytoP, 9-epi-9-F-1t-PhytoP, 16-B-1-PhytoP, ent-16-B-1-PhytoP, 9-L-1-PhytoP, and ent-9-L-1-PhytoP. Macadamia fried salt nuts were the only ones that produced 9-epi-9-D-1-PhytoP and 9-D-1-PhytoP. The total PhytoP concentration in raw nuts was in the range of 5541-7830ngkg(-1) fresh weight (FW); for most of the PhytoPs, the concentrations were lowest in raw walnuts, indicating that concentration of each PhytoP was influenced by the genotype. The frying process increased the total PhytoPs concentration to the range of 8903-33,727ngkg(-1) FW. Therefore, this is the first work describing PhytoPs in nuts and reinforces the capacity of these compounds to act as biomarkers to monitor the processing treatments that influence the final quality of nuts.