The potential of herbs and spices to reduce lipid oxidation during heating and gastrointestinal digestion of a beef product

Here we tested the potential of ten culinary herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme) and spices (black pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, curcuma, garlic and sweet paprika) to limit oxidation during cooking of a high fat beef product, and during its subsequent in vitro gastrointestinal digestion. The herbs and spices were added separately at 0.5% and 1% (w/w), either during meat processing before heating of the product or after heating of the meat as a seasoning. Lipid oxidation was evaluated by malondialdehyde, 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal and hexanal quantification in the meat products and gastrointestinal digests. In general, adding the herbs and spices before heating of the meat was more effective at limiting oxidation during digestion, compared to adding these compounds after heating. Doses of 1% were more effective than 0.5%. The four herbs and curcuma displayed antioxidant activity in all treatments and were more effective in limiting oxidation than the other culinary compounds, resulting in negligible concentrations of 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal and hexanal in the meat and digests. Black pepper, cayenne pepper and cumin moderately reduced or had no effect on oxidation during digestion when added following heating of the meat, but had a more pronounced antioxidant effect when added before heating. Sweet paprika and garlic exerted some pro-oxidant effects during cooking. During digestion, sweet paprika had an antioxidant effect, but garlic did not. The extent to which the herbs and spices limited oxidation, showed a strong correlation with their phenolic content, and lower correlations with a-tocopherol and chlorophyll.