Valencian Paella: Synergistic Antioxidant Properties of a Complete Dish versus Its Isolated Ingredients

Abstract

The Mediterranean diet (MD) is rich in plant-based foods that provide antioxidants associated with a lower risk of chronic degenerative diseases, with Valencia’s paella being a representative dish. Antioxidants can be classified as extractable or non-extractable. Extractable antioxidants are easily extracted using aqueous and organic solvents. On the other hand, non-extractable antioxidants are those that are bound to the food’s cellular matrix and cannot be easily extracted. This study provides information on these properties in paella, evaluating total polyphenols (TP) (Folin-Ciocalteu method) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) (TEAC and ORAC). Per 100 g, the total values ranged from 835.65 mg GAE/dry weight (DW) for TP to 1286.80 and 77,803.54 µM Trolox/DW for TEAC and ORAC (TAC), respectively. Approximately 82% of the TAC comes from non-extractable antioxidants. Furthermore, there is an antioxidant synergy in a portion of paella compared to the sum of its ingredients: TP (478.74 vs. 168.37), TEAC (2111.10 vs. 1669.98), and ORAC (127,642.42 vs. 47,023.59), respectively. The results can contribute to expanding the information present in TAC and total polyphenol databases, as there are few studies on complete dishes, and they tend to significantly underestimate the total values due to the lack of determination of non-extractable antioxidants.

Keywords

• Mediterranean diet
• antioxidant capacity
• total polyphenols
• TEAC
• ORAC
• synergy