Bioaccessibility of phenolic compounds following in vitro gut fermentation of passiflora

Abstract

The insertion of fruits from native species in the market can enhance the socio-economic development of the region, in addition to valuing Brazilian biodiversity. The fruits of native passion fruit are rich in bioactive compounds associated with the reduction of the incidence of obesity-associated comorbidities. Our research group has demonstrated that the fruits from P. tenuifila, a passion fruit native to the Brazilian Cerrado, are rich phenolic compounds, especially, proanthocyanidins, and its ingestion promotes the improvement of some cardiometabolic markers. Proanthocyanidins are not absorbed in their native form, but are extensively metabolized by the intestinal microbiota into several low molecular weight compounds, which are attributed to the biological action. However, since metabolization depends on the microbiota, disturbances in its composition can drastically affect its metabolization. Thus, the objective of this work is to study the metabolism of proanthocyanidins from P. tenuifila by the intestinal microbiota. For that, the phenolic compounds will be submitted to colonic fermentation in vitro, from feces of two distinct microbiota profiles, in addition to evaluating the prebiotic effect.