Functional Foods from Crops on the Northern Region of the South American Andes: The Importance of Blackberry, Yacon, Açai, Yellow Pitahaya and the Application of Its Biocompounds

ABSTRACT

The search for new nutritional alternatives that favor human health is related to one of the world’s tendencies in science and food technology nowadays: research on food with functional properties (antioxidant activity, prebiotic activity, intestinal motility, among others), mainly regions’ autochthonous products, from which the productive sector can benefit thanks to its transformation and added value generation. In this review, the importance of four Andean food items with the potential to be explored and maximized by obtaining functional products is described. Because of the fact that blackberry, yacón, açaí and yellow pitahaya are promissory Andean foods with exceptional qualities for consumers’ health, information was gathered about studies and possible effects in treatment of diseases, and the most used methods for the product and therefore for their biocompounds. It was concluded that this kind of food items represents important alternatives for the transformation and extraction of biocompounds (pigments, antioxidants, fructo-oligosaccharides, fiber, among others), in which non-thermal technologies play a fundamental role in conserving their functional properties, and at the same time, strengthen rural agro-industry and the exploitation of autochthonous products for strengthening region’s and world’s economy.

KEYWORDS:

• Emerging Technologies
• Functional compounds
• Natural Antioxidants
• Properties
• Stability