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Documentation for the USDA Database for Flavonoids for Selected Foods
Recent interest by the scientific community in the types and levels of flavonoids in foods centerson the varied biological properties of certain flavonoid compounds: These include antioxidative,antimicrobial, and possibly anticarcinogenic, and/or cardioprotective effects. To address theseneeds a database of the flavonoid content of foods was developed. The collaborators are the Nutrient Data Laboratory (NDL) and the Food Composition Laboratory (FCL) of the BeltsvilleHuman Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC) of the ARS/USDA, the Epidemiology Group atJean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, Tufts UniversitySchool of Nutrition Science & Policy, and the Frances Stern Nutrition Center at Tufts NewEngland Medical Center, Boston, MA., Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition, General Mills,Minneapolis, MN and Unilever Bestfoods, North America, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.The project consists of two phases. The first phase was to survey the scientific literature for articles containing data on the flavonoid content of foods and this is now completed. The second phase will be the analysis, already underway, of about sixty fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables atthe FCL. Literature searches were conducted using several databases which includeinternational scientific journals. Key words for individual flavonoids plus taxonomic names,genus and species for fruits, nuts and vegetables and other flavonoid containing foods such as teawere used to search for scientific articles in the databases. The relevant articles were reviewedand those papers containing analytical data were retrieved. Articles that contained data onselected compounds in the five subclasses of the dietary flavonoids were retained for criticalevaluation. These subclasses were chosen because dietary flavonoids consist mainly of theseclasses. Only the most commonly occurring compounds from each subclass were included in thedatabase making a total of 19 compounds. The NDL had released a separate database,“USDA-Iowa State University Isoflavones Database”on its web site in 1999. Therefore isoflavones arenot included in this database. Similarly proanthocyanidins are also not included in the presentdatabase as we are in the process of developing a separate database for these compounds.
Subclasses of flavonoids and selected compounds:
•FLAVONOLS:
Quercetin, Kaempferol, Myricetin, Isorhamnetin (Figure 1)•FLAVONES: Luteolin, Apigenin (Figure 2)•FLAVANONES:
Hesperetin, Naringenin, Eriodictyol (Figure 3)
•
FLAVAN-3-OLS: (+)-Catechin, (+)-Gallocatechin, (-)-Epicatechin, (-)-Epigallocatechin,(-)-Epicatechin 3-gallate, (-)-Epigallocatechin 3-gallate, Theaflavin, Theaflavin 3-gallate,Theaflavin 3'-gallate, Theaflavin 3,3' digallate, Thearubigins (Figure 4)•ANTHOCYANIDINS: Cyanidin, Delphinidin, Malvidin, Pelargonidin, Peonidin,Petunidin (Figure 5)
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