Ferulic acid pretreatment alleviates the decrease in hardness of cooked Chinese radish (Raphanus sativus L. var. longipinnatus Bailey)

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the impact of ferulic acid pretreatment on the hardness of Chinese radish after cooking. Radish slices were immersed in ferulic acid solution and distilled water, respectively. The ferulic acid treated samples showed significantly higher hardness (p < 0.05) than the control samples after cooking, and could keep relatively more integrated cell wall structure after cooking at 100 °C for 30 min. Subsequently, we determined the cell wall fraction contents, sugar ratio and molecular weight distribution of different treated samples. Ferulic acid treated groups showed higher percentage of chelate-soluble fraction (CSF) and sugar ratio 1 than the control groups in both fresh and cooked samples. The CSF had two high molecular weight peaks at 7.7 min and 8.6 min, probably due to the cross-linking with ferulic acid. This research may provide an effective way to decrease the softening of thermally processed fruits and vegetables.

Keywords: CDTA (PubChem CID: 10213); Cell wall materials; Chinese radish slices; Ferulic acid; Ferulic acid (PubChem CID: 445858); Glutaral (PubChem CID: 3485); Hardness; Microstructure; Potassium acetate (PubChem CID: 517044); Potassium hydroxide (PubChem CID: 14797); Pyridine (PubChem CID: 1049); Sodium Sulfate (PubChem CID: 24436); Sodium carbonate (PubChem CID: 10340); Trifluoroacetic acid (PubChem CID: 6422).