The results of a Ph.D. thesis are supporting the regularity of the daily consumption of oranges because of their highly beneficial compounds to human health.

Under the tile "Effects of orange conservation and processing and its juice on the contents, stability and bio-availability of its bio-active constituents", this scientific investigation study - performed by Antonio Gil Izquierdo, licensed in Chemical Sciences and Food Technology of the Center of Applied Edaphology and Biology (CEBAS), and supervised by researchers of the Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) Federico Ferreres e María Isabel Gil - deals with new aspects of the consumption of bioactive compounds present in orange and orange juice.

The bioactive compounds focused in this thesis are the phenolic compounds, particularly flavanones, in addition to vitamin C. The flavanones are a group of compounds of the flavanoid family and are found in very high concentration in citrus fruit. The bioactivity of orange flavanones stand out because of their ability to promote health, since they help prevent certain types of cancer (colon and breast cancers) and improve arterial and venous circulation, owing to their anti-aggregation, vasodilative conditions and the fact that they are anti-adherent at the plasmatic level. Furthermore, they have analgesic, antiallergic and anti-inflammatory properties.

The content of phenolic compounds, vitamin C and antioxidant abilities are different depending on the variety of the orange. In this study, the Washington Navel (Bahia) orange was the one that presented the highest quantity of flavanones. Its content in the albedo (mesocarp or the white part of the skin) was 15 to 20 times higher than for each orange wedge. The study also demonstrated that orange conservation and refrigeration did not affect the stability of those phenolic compounds. According to researchers, the way the orange is peeled and the quantity of albedo that adheres to the wedges is fundamental for the total ingested flavanones, therefore it is recommended that orange be consumed with a larger quantity of albedo of the wedges. Regarding orange juice, the industrial extraction process gave place to orange juices with a higher concentration of those compounds than the obtained with orange squeezers found in home kitchens.

Furthermore, the study revealed that vitamin C is highly abundant in fresh oranges and in orange juice, and the compound is not very affected by conservation treatments nor is it by processing. Vitamin C of recently squeezed or processed fresh oranges is stable and does not suffer losses during three days of conservation and refrigeration, contrary to the popular belief of immediate loss of vitamin C, completes the thesis.

Source: Laranja Brasil