In this study, the in vitro bioavailability of rosehip infusion phenolics, mainly catechin, as a response to conventional and non-thermal treatments by combining gastrointestinal digestion and a Caco-2 cell culture model, was investigated. After application of thermal treatment (TT, 85 °C/10 min), high pressure (HPP, 600 MPa/5 min) or pulsed electric field (PEF, 15 kJ/kg) processing, all samples were subjected to simulated gastrointestinal digestion. Then, the amount of maximum non-toxic digest ratio was determined by the cytotoxicity sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay. Next, Caco-2 cells were exposed to 1:5 (v/v) times diluted digests in order to simulate the transepithelial transportation of catechin. Results showed that non-thermally processed samples (5.19 and 4.62% for HPP and PEF, respectively) exhibited greater transportation across the epithelial cell layer compared to than that of the TT-treated sample (3.42%). The present study highlighted that HPP and PEF, as non-thermal treatments at optimized conditions for infusions or beverages, can be utilized in order to enhance the nutritional quality of the final products.
Keywords: Caco-2 cell culture; LC-MS; bioactive compounds; metabolic fate; non-thermal processing; transepithelial transport.