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The World Health Organization has emphasized the importance of consuming small fruits for the prevention of chronic health problems, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and obesity, which are named chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Azara serrata Ruiz & Pav., commonly called “aroma de Castilla”, is a shrub endemic to Chile from the Salicaceae family that produces an underutilized blue-grey berry that grows wild in southern Chile. The species is widely used as a medicinal plant by the Andean communities of southern Chile. In this work, a high-resolution mass spectrometric analysis of the methanolic extract revealed several phenolic compounds for the first time in the edible berry of this endemic species. Furthermore, several glycosylated anthocyanins were detected and quantified using UHPLC coupled with UV/Vis detection and trapped ion mobility mass spectrometry (UHPLC-DAD-TIMS-TOF) for the anthocyanin-rich extract, which was prepared using an optimized anthocyanin extraction protocol. The extract proved to be active in the inhibition of several enzymes linked to NCDs, such as acetylcholinesterase, tyrosinase, amylase, lipase, and glucosidase (IC₅₀ = 3.92 ± 0.23, 12.24 ± 0.03, 11.12 ± 0.10, 32.43 ± 0.0, and 371.6 ± 0.0 μg/mL, respectively). Furthermore, the extract concentrated in anthocyanins showed good antioxidant activity evidenced by the bleaching of the radicals DPPH and ABTS, ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC). The results show that these neglected endemic small berries can be a source of healthy phytochemicals. These Chilean berries can be used as functional food and their extracts are candidates for use as functional ingredients in naturally healthy products. Full article

Azara dentata Ruiz & Pav. is a small Chilean native plant from Patagonia, a producer of small white reddish berries. For the first time, the proximal analysis of the fruits, phenolic fingerprinting, the antioxidant activity, and the enzymatic inhibition and relaxation effects in rat aorta induced by the ethanolic extract of these fruits were investigated. The proximal composition and the mineral (Ca: 2434 ± 40 mg/kg; Mg: 702 ± 13 mg/kg; Fe: 117.1 ± 1.6 mg/kg; Zn: 16.1 ± 0.4 mg/kg) and heavy metal (As: 121 ± 11 µg/kg; Cd: 152 ± 5 µg/kg; Hg: 7.7 ± 1.3 µg/kg; Pb 294 ± 4 µg/kg) contents were analyzed. Anthocyanins, flavonoids, phenolic acids, and coumarins were identified using UHPLC-PDA-QTOF-MS. The ethanolic extracts showed a total phenolic content of 23.50 ± 0.93 mg GAE/g extract. In addition, the antioxidant activity was assessed using both DPPH and TEAC (28.64 ± 1.87 and 34.72 ± 2.33 mg Trolox/g of dry fruit, respectively), FRAP (25.32 ± 0.23 mg Trolox equivalent/g dry fruit), and ORAC (64.95 ± 1.23 mg Trolox equivalents/g dry fruit). The inhibition of enzymatic activities (acetylcholinesterase IC₅₀: 2.87 + 0.23 µg extract/mL, butyrylcholinesterase IC₅₀: 6.73 + 0.07 µg extract/mL, amylase IC₅₀: 5.6 ± 0.0 µg extract/mL, lipase IC₅₀: 30.8 ± 0.0 µg extract/mL, and tyrosinase IC₅₀: 9.25 ± 0.15 µg extract/mL) was also assessed. The extract showed 50–60% relaxation in rat aorta (intact), mediated thorough the release of endothelial nitric oxide. Our results suggest that A. dentata is a good source of compounds with the capacity to inhibit important enzymes, can be hypotensive, and can thus have good potentiality as supplements in the amelioration of neurodegenerative diseases and could also have potential to be used to develop new functional foods. The study highlights the benefits of these neglected small fruits and could boost their consumption. Full article

There is a great demand for the recovery of bioactive compounds from by-products and side streams in the food and cosmetic industries. More sustainable extraction methodologies are being chosen, such as pulsed electric field (PEF) assisted extraction, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), and ultrasound-assisted extraction. Endemic fruits represent a great and little-explored source of biomolecules that can become potential candidates for the study of new drugs and support the use of native species in functional foods or nutraceuticals. Some phenolics from Chilean fruits proved to have potential in the prevention of non-communicable or chronic diseases. The study aimed to produce polyphenolic-rich extracts from corcolen (Azara dentata Ruiz & Pav) by non-thermal methodologies. Two extracts were obtained by means of SFE, using CO₂ and ethanol as co-solvents, and PLE using water as a solvent. The total antioxidant capacity, total phenolic content, carbohydrates, and proteins of both extracts were analyzed. The resulting phenolic content of the extracts obtained by SFE and PLE was 5.37 ± 0.38 and 21.17 ± 0.57 mg GAE/g sample, respectively. The total antioxidant capacity was 3.22 ± 0.47 and 18.05 ± 1.25 mg Trolox/g sample for the SFE and PLE extracts, respectively. Moreover, corcolen composition was characterized by LC-TTOF chromatography, being chrysoeriol 7-O-glucoside, isorhamnetin 7-O-rhamnoside, isorhoifolin, rhoifolin, kaempferol 3-O-feruloyl-sophoroside 7-O-glucoside, kaempferol 3-O-feruloyl-sophorotrioside, spinacetin 3-O-(2-p-coumaroylglucosyl) (1->6)-apiosyl (1->2)-glucoside, cyanidin 3-O-(-xylosyl-(6-caffeoyl-glucosyl)-galactoside), the eight more predominant flavonoids. The different extraction methodologies allowed the obtaining of extracts with an interesting antioxidant capacity, rich in polyphenols, that could potentially find several applications as dietary supplements, ingredients for cosmetic formulations, or additives in food. Full article