A new Israeli almond ‘Shefa’: phytochemical composition and response to roasting temperature and duration

ABSTRACT

Demand for almond is in rise, due to its desired flavor and beneficial health-related properties. Roasting is the most common practice in almond processing, improving aroma and texture, as well as nutritional properties. “Shefa,” a new Israeli almond variety, was recently introduced; however, no information is available regarding its phytochemical composition and response to roasting. The aim of the current work was to characterize its health-related composition, in addition to describe its response to moderate roasting conditions, including temperature and duration. For this, “Shefa” almonds were roasted at 100°C, 125°C, 150°C, and 175°C for 15 and 25 min. and compared to raw unroasted kernels. Health and nutritional quality parameters included antioxidant capacity (DPPH, FRAP, and ABTS; spectrophotometric), total polyphenol, tocopherol and phytosterol content (spectrophotometric), and fatty acid profiling (GC-MS). Our results demonstrate that “Shefa” variety phytochemical composition resembles that of other Mediterranean almond varieties, e.g. Italian and Turkish are high in tocopherols and phytosterols, with average polyphenol content. Its antioxidant activity was 19.11, 25.56, and 22.18 mg TE/100 g DW for DPPH, FRAP, and ABTS, respectively. In addition, under the roasting conditions evaluated in the current work, “Shefa” almonds presented an improved health-related composition, with levels of antioxidant capacity, polyphenols, tocopherols, and phytosterols increasing with temperature and duration. “Shefa” response to roasting resembled that of other almond varieties evaluated under comparable roasting conditions. To conclude, the newly introduced Israeli almond “Shefa” has a healthy and nutritionally beneficial phytochemical composition, which improves with moderate roasting. Further investigation is needed to profile its polyphenol and tocopherol composition, to provide additional valuable insights into its phytochemical composition.

KEYWORDS:

• Nutritional value
• Phytonutrients
• Processing
• Oilseeds
• Nuts
• Health benefits

Research highlights

• The phytochemical profile of a newly bred Israeli almond variety ‘Shefa” is characterized.

• Varity’s response to roasting temperature and duration was also evaluated.

• Mild roasting conditions were found to increase almond’s health-related composition.

• “Shefa” profile of beneficial properties resembles that of other Mediterranean almond varieties.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Israeli Almond Board for the partial funding for this work. We also want to thank Mrs. Rachel Buchris from “Ort Aryeh-Meir” high school for her valuable support and contribution to this project. Many thanks to Mr. Moshe Levi for the kernels, and Prof. Arnon Dag for his helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

CRediT Taxonomy

ZT- Conceptualization, formal analysis, funding acquisition, methodology, supervision, visualization, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing; NV- investigation, writing – original draft; IG- investigation, data curation, methodology, project administration, resources, validation; SM- methodology, validation, RHB- investigation; DH- Conceptualization, funding acquisition, writing – review & editing.