Chia seeds (SalviahispanicaL.) are considered as a good alternative to produce supplementedfoods in order to improve its nutritional value. In our previouswork, presented at Food Integrity 2016, we showed the analysis ofquality parameters and antioxidant activity of pasta produced withpartial substitution of wheat flour with different proportions ofchia defatted flour (0%, 2.5%, 5% and 10%). We have demonstrated thatthe increasing content of chia flour improves the antioxidantproperties of the produced pasta.

Generally, theantioxidant activity is associated with the content of phenoliccompounds. Considering that pasta is consumed after cooking and thatthe chemical profile of these components can be affected by hightemperatures, our next goals were to assess the antioxidant capacityof raw and boiled pasta and to analyze the chemical profile ofphenolic compounds through HPLC-MS. Initially, we performed theHPLC-MS/MS identification of the components of the acetone:water(80:20) extract obtained from chia defatted flour, determining thepresence of 14 phenolic compounds, among which 12 of them can beconsidered structurally related to hydroxycinnamic acids such ascaffeic acid, one was identified as quinic acid, and one correspondsto a flavone structure named hispidulin with very low abundance(<1μg/g). The extract is characterized by the prominent abundanceof two main compounds identified as rosmarinic acid and itsglycoside. Both components together with other 9 compounds, all ofthem related to caffeic acid, have been reported in other Salviaspecies, but none of them had been previously reported in chia apartfrom rosmarinic acid.

Subsequently, weevaluated the extracts of raw and boiled pasta using HPLC-MSquantitative analysis of the phenolic compounds detected in chia. Allthe polyphenols quantified in the extracts showed an increasingconcentration correlated with the increased content of chia in rawand boiled pasta. On the other hand, the boiling process affectedquantitatively the phenolic compounds profile. Caffeic acid, caffeicacid hexoside and danshensu showed higher concentration in boiledpasta than in raw pasta. However, rosmarinic acid glycoside, one ofthe most abundant components in raw pasta, was not detected afterboiling. This drastic change indicates that chemical modificationsare occurring which could explain the elevated content of the 3 othermolecules mentioned. On the other hand, the levels of rosmarinic acidare not significantly affected by the boiling process, contributingto preserve the antioxidant capacity of pasta supplemented with chiaat the moment of intake. The results show that the abundance of themain components is correlated with the antioxidant capacity measuredby chemical methods; therefore, the increased antioxidant activity ofsupplemented pasta compared with control wheat pasta is explained bythe presence of phenolic compounds provided by chia, particularlyrosmarinic acid and other caffeic acid derivatives.

This work representsan interesting contribution in the field, considering that it is thefirst report with a detailed profile of phenolic compounds ofdefatted chia seeds and a derivative food, using HPLC-MS/MSmethodology.