Food Chemistry 128 (2011) 943–948

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Food Chemistry
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Phenolic compounds in Chinese purple yam and changes during vacuum frying
Zhongxiang Fang a,b, Dan Wu a, Dong Yü a, Xinqian Ye a, Donghong Liu a, Jianchu Chen a,⇑
a
School of Biosystems Engineering and Food Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China
b
School of Land, Crop and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Phenolic compounds and their changes during vacuum frying were investigated for a Chinese purple
Received 27 December 2010 yam. Three cyanidin derivatives and one peonidin derivative were tentatively identified by HPLC–
Received in revised form 23 March 2011 DAD–ESIMS analysis; sinapic acid and ferulic acid were identified by HPLC–DAD analysis with authentic
Accepted 30 March 2011
chemicals. There were 31.0 mg/100 g (dry weight, DW) of total anthocyanin (ACN) and 478 mg/100 g DW
Available online 6 April 2011
of total phenolic content (TPC) in the fresh yam. Sinapic acid and ferulic acid were 135 and 31.3 mg/100 g
DW respectively. The blanching process caused about 60% of ACN, and 30–50% of phenolic acids and TPC
Keywords:
to be lost, which showed that anthocyanins were most vulnerable during blanching. The retention rate of
Purple yam
Anthocyanins
the phenolic compounds during vacuum frying was 60–69%, indicating it was a practical technology for
Phenolic acids purple yam processing, on account of its impact on the phenolic compounds stability.
Phenolic compounds Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Vacuum frying

1. Introduction
Purple yam is a type of yam with purple to red coloured flesh,
which belongs to the species of Dioscorea alata L. and is planted
in different regions of the Chinese mainland (Chai et al., 1999). Var-
ious functional components, such as mucin, dioscin, dioscorin,
allantoin, choline, polyphenols, polyphenolases, vitamins and
essential amino acids have been reported in yam tubers (Bhandari,
Kasai, & Kawabata, 2003; Ingrid, Helen, & Ahmad, 1993; Iwu et al.,
1999; Omonigho & Ikenebomeh, 2000; Ozo, Caygill, & Coursey,
1984; Shewry, 2003). As for the purple yams, the most interesting
components are phenolic compounds, including anthocyanins
(Imbert & Seaforth, 1968; Ozo et al., 1984; Rašper & Coursey,
1967; Shoyama et al., 1990; Yoshida et al., 1991) and catechins
(Ozo et al., 1984). Traditionally, yams can be used as Chinese her-
bal medicines to prevent the diseases of diarrhoea and diabetes
(Hsu, Chen, Hsu, Chen, & Chang, 1984; Yen, 1992). Modern
research shows yam extracts can reduce blood sugar (Undie &
Akubue, 1986) and blood lipid (Araghiniknam, Chung, Nelson-
White, Eskelson, & Watson, 1996), inhibit microbial activity
(Kelmanson, Jager, & Van Staden, 2000), and possess antioxidant
(Bhandari & Kawabata, 2004; Chen, Kao, & Lin, 2008), antimuta-
genic (Miyazawa, Shimamura, Nakamura, & Kameoka, 1996) and
anti-allergic activities (Tewtrakul & Itharat, 2006), which suggests
that consumption of fresh yam tubers has potential health benefits
for human beings.
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 571 86971165.
E-mail address: jc@zju.edu.cn (J. Chen).
Yams in China are mainly consumed in the forms of raw, soup
or powder. They are also peeled, sliced and sun/air dried as raw
herbal medicines. Since fresh purple yams decay easily during stor-
age, processed yam products are used for commercial circulation
and consumption. The most commonly used processing method
for yams is drying, which can prolong the market supply and
improve the taste. The methods of air-drying (Falade, Olurin, Ike,
Aworh, 2007), freeze-drying (Hsu, Chen, Weng, Tseng, 2003) and
far-infrared radiation-assisted freeze drying (Lin, Lee, Tsen, King,
2007) have been reported for yam processing.
Vacuum frying may be an alternative for drying of fruits and
vegetables, resulting in a crisp texture and flavour. It is defined
as a frying process that is carried out under pressures well below
atmospheric levels, preferably below 50 Torr (6.65 kPa) (Garayo
Moreira, 2002). As the pressure decreases, the boiling points both
for oil and moisture in foods is lowered, which brings some advan-
tages, including reduced oil content in the fried product, preserved
natural colour and flavours, due to the low temperature and low
oxygen content during processing, and improved oil quality (Shyu,
Hau, Hwang, 1998). This technology has been extensively investi-
gated in fruit and vegetable drying, for example, vacuum frying of
apple (Mariscal Bouchon, 2008), mango (Nunes Moreira, 2009),
potato (Garayo Moreira, 2002), carrot (Fan, Zhan, Mujumdar,
2005), and green beans (Da Silva Moreira, 2008).
To date, reports of phenolic compounds in Chinese purple yam
are limited, and there is no literature concerning the vacuum frying
of purple yam. The aim of this study is to identify the major
phenolic compounds in Chinese purple yam and develop a vacuum
frying technology for its possible commercialisation. The changes

0308-8146/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.03.123
944 Z. Fang et al. / Food Chemistry 128 (2011) 943–948
of phenolic compounds during the vacuum frying process were
also monitored in the present work.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Purple yams were harvested in a farm of Huangyan district,
Taizhou city, Zhejiang Province, China in December 2008, and
transported to our laboratory on the same day. The yam tubers
were stored in a cold room at 4 °C for further use. The soybean sal-
ad oil was purchased in a Hangzhou supermarket, Zhejiang
Province.
2.2. Chemicals
Sinapic acid, ferulic acid and Folin–Ciocalteau reagent were pur-
chased from Sigma–Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). Methanol and acetoni-
trile were HPLC grade and other chemicals were of analytical
grade, which were purchased from Shanghai Chemical Reagent
Co. (Shanghai, China). All solution preparations were made using
distilled-deionised water.
2.3. Vacuum frying of purple yam
The purple yams were taken out from the cold room, washed,
peeled, and sliced (3 ± 0.2 mm). The yam slices were blanched for
2 min in boiling water (containing 2% NaCl and 1% citric acid),
cooled, drained, and then frozen at 18 °C overnight (about 20 h).
The frozen yam slices (without thawing) were fried in a vacuum
fryer equipped with a centrifuge (Hairui Co. Ltd., Yantai, China)
with a 20-L capacity. After a number of preliminary experiments,
the slices were fried at 100 °C, vacuum pressure 0.090 MPa for
15 min. The yam chips were vacuum centrifuged at 450 rpm for
5 min to remove the frying oil, and then taken out from the fryer,
cooled and packaged in foil-filmed bags. The samples were stored
at 4 °C for further analysis. A batch of 100-g yam slices was fried in
3 L of soybean oil. The procedure is shown in Fig. 1.
Fresh purple yam*
Washing, peeling, slicing
Blanching (100°C, 2min) *
Cooling & draining
* 0.3–1.25 mm; Chemical Industrial Factory of Nankai University,
Freezing (−18°C,20 h)
Vacuum frying (100°C, 0.09
MPa, 15 min) and oil
removal (450 rpm, 5 min) *
Cooling and packaging
Yam chips
Fig. 1. Flow chart for vacuum frying of purple yam (⁄, samples taken for analysis).
2.4. Moisture determination
Fresh yam tubers were peeled and sliced. The yam chips were
crushed at the end of the vacuum frying operation. The moisture
content was analysed using approximately 5 g of fresh yam slices
or the ground yam chips, which were vacuum-oven dried at
70 °C for 24 h (AOAC., 1995). The test was performed in duplicate.
2.5. Fat content
The fat contents of the fresh yam tuber and yam chips were
measured by extracting for 6 h using the Soxhlet method with
ether (AOAC, 1995). Analyses were carried out in duplicate.
2.6. Extraction of phenolic compounds
Phenolic compounds from fresh purple yam and fried chips
were extracted following a modified procedure described by
Pazmiño-Durán, Giusti, Wrolstad, and Glória (2001). As for the
fresh yam, 25 g of sample was blended with 250 mL of 0.01% HCl
in methanol (v/v) and stored overnight at 5 °C. The vacuum-fried
yam chips were defatted by Soxhlet extraction for 6 h with chloro-
form before methanol extraction. The samples were filtered using a
Büchner funnel, and the residue was re-extracted with 0.01% HCl in
methanol until a clear solution was obtained. Filtrates were
combined and concentrated to 20 mL in a rotary evaporator at
35 °C under reduced pressure.
2.7. Total phenolic content
The extract prepared in the previous section was made up to
50 mL with distilled-deionised water. Total polyphenols were
estimated colorimetrically using the modified Folin–Ciocalteau
method reported by Sellappan, Akoh, and Krewer (2002). An
aliquot of 0.2 mL of sample was added to 0.8 mL of water, 5 mL
of 0.2 N Folin–Ciocalteau reagent, and 4 mL of saturated sodium
carbonate solution (75 g/L) and mixed in a screw-capped test tube.
The absorbance was measured at 765 nm with a 752 UV–Vis spec-
trophotometer (Shanghai Precise Instrument Corp. Ltd. Shanghai,
China) after incubation for 2 h at room temperature. Quantification
was based on the standard curve established with 100, 200, 300,
400 and 500 mg/L of gallic acid and the results were expressed
as gallic acid equivalents in milligrams per kilogram dry weight
(mg GAE/kg DW). The results were averages of triplicate analyses.
2.8. Identification of anthocyanins in fresh purple yam
For individual anthocyanin analysis, the extraction prepared in
Section 2.6 was made up to 50 mL with 0.01% aqueous HCl, and
partitioned with 50 mL of ethyl acetate three times. The organic
phase was discarded and the aqueous phase was absorbed onto a
10 cm AB-8 macropore adsorptive resin column (polystyrene resin,
Tianjin, China) previously activated with methanol followed by
0.01% aqueous HCl (Hong Wrolstad, 1990). The column was eluted
with 0.01% aqueous HCl and anthocyanins were subsequently
recovered with methanol containing 0.01% HCl. The methanolic ex-
tract was concentrated at 35 °C and then made up to 50 mL using
deionised water containing 0.01% HCl.
The anthocyanins were analysed by a HPLC–DAD–ESIMS meth-
od, which was performed on a Waters platform ZMD 4000 system,
composed of a Micromass ZMD single quadrupole mass spectrom-
eter, a Waters 2690 HPLC, and a Waters 996 photodiode array
detector (Waters Corp., Milford, MA). Data were collected and
processed via MassLynx software Version 4.0 (Micromass, Beverly,
MA).
 Z. Fang et al. / Food Chemistry 128 (2011) 943–948
The purified anthocyanin extract in 10-lL aliquots was sepa-
rated by an Agilent Zorbax SB C-18 column (250  4.6 mm, 5 lm
particle size, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA). Solvent A
was acetonitrile and solvent B was 0.1% formic acid in water (v/
v). The elution profile consisted of a linear gradient from 0% to
10% A in 5 min, to 30% A in 25 min, to 10% A at 25.1 min and kept
at 10% A for 5 min. The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min.
UV–Vis absorption spectra were recorded on-line during HPLC
analysis. Spectral measurements were made over the range
200–600 nm and the anthocyanins were detected at 530 nm. Mass
spectra were achieved by electrospray ionisation in positive mode.
The following ion optics was used: capillary 3.93 kV, cone 30 V,
and extractor 5 V. The source block temperature was 100 °C and
the desolvation temperature was 250 °C. The electrospray probe-
flow was adjusted to 70 mL/min. Continuous mass spectra were
recorded over the range m/z 200–1300 with scan time 1 s and
interscan delay 0.1 s. The individual anthocyanins were tentatively
identified by their UV–Vis spectra and mass spectra.
2.9. Total anthocyanin assay
Total anthocyanin (ACN) contents were determined using the
pH differential method with buffer pH values of 1.0 and 4.5,
respectively (Giusti Wrolstad, 2001). The concentrated extract
was made up to 50 mL with distilled-deionised water. Absorbance
was measured at 530 and 700 nm. ACN was calculated as follows:
A ¼ ðA530  A700 ÞpH 1:0  ðA530  A700 Þ pH 4:5
A  449:2  1000  dilution factor
Anthocyanins ðmg=lÞ ¼
26900
where A is the absorbance, 449.2 and 26900 are the molecular mass
and extinction coefficient of cyanidin 3-glucoside, respectively.
2.10. Identification and quantification of phenolic acids
For analysis of individual phenolic acids, the extraction from
Section 2.6 was treated by alkaline hydrolysis (4 M NaOH) for 4 h
under a nitrogen atmosphere at room temperature (Swatsitang,
Tucker, Robards, Jardine, 2000). After acidification to pH 2 using
6 M HCl, the solution was extracted 3 times with diethyl ether/
ethyl acetate (1/1, v/v) at a solvent-to-water phase ratio of 1:1,
to obtain the phenolic acids. The ether/ethyl acetate extracts were
combined, filtered, and evaporated to dryness under vacuum and
made up to 50 mL with methanol.
The HPLC–DAD analysis of phenolic acids was carried out on a
Waters 2695 HPLC and a Waters 2998 photodiode array detector.
The prepared phenolic acid solution was filtered through a Milli-
pore membrane (0.45 lm) before injection, and 10 lL were in-
jected onto a Waters Sunfire C18 column (250  4.6 mm, 5 lm).
The column thermostat was set at 40 °C. Solvent A was methanol
and solvent B consisted of 0.1% formic acid in water (v/v). The sam-
ple was isocratically eluted at a solvent A/B ratio of 45/55 at a flow
rate of 1 mL/min. The spectral measurements were made over the
range 200–400 nm and detection wavelength was 320 nm.
The phenolic acids were identified by comparing their retention
times and UV–Vis spectra with those of standards (sinapic acid and
ferulic acid). The samples were also spiked with the pure standards
to validate the identification. Standard curves of sinapic acid and
ferulic acid were obtained based on their concentrations of 10–
50 mg/L. Quantification was performed with the regression equa-
tions from the standard curves and results were expressed as
mg/100 g DW.
945
2.11. Statistical analysis
Data analyses were determined using the statistic software SPSS
10.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Analysis of variance was performed;
mean values were considered significantly different when p 6 0.05.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Determination of anthocyanins
In the present work, 9 anthocyanin peaks were detected
(530 nm) four peaks eluting at 12.23, 12.51, 13.13, and 14.74 min
accounted for 91.51% of the total peak areas (Fig. 2).
The UV–visible spectra and ESIMS positive ions of the major
anthocyanins are summarised in Table 1. The UV–visible spectra
of anthocyanins can provide information about the acylation and
glycosylation patterns (Harborne, 1958; Harborne, 1967). The ratio
of absorbance at the acyl maximum (kacyl, 310–340 nm) to absor-
bance at the anthocyanin maximum wavelength (kmax, 510–
535 nm), Akacyl/Akmax, is a measure of the molar relation of the
hydroxycinnamic acids (e.g., caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic
acid, and sinapic acid, etc.) to the anthocyanins. In acidified meth-
anolic solutions, a ratio of 48–71% is indicative of a 1/1 M ratio,
while a ratio of 83–128% is characteristic of a 2/1molar ratio of
hydroxycinnamic acids to the anthocyanin. A ratio of A440/Akmax
of 20–30% generally indicates glycosidic substitution at position
3 or 7 of the flavylium, and high probability at position 3 (Hong
Wrolstad, 1990).
Peak 1 had a strong absorbance at 530 and 332 nm, and the Aka-
cyl/Akmax was 121.3% (Table 1), suggesting two acylated hydroxy-
cinnamic acids. A440/Akmax of 26.7% implied glycosidic
substitution at position 3. The mass spectral fragmentation pattern
showed it had a molecular ion (M+) at m/z 773 and fragment ions at
m/z 449 and 287 (M-162, loss of a hexose unit). The ion at m/z 287
is typical of cyanidin, so peak 1 was tentatively identified as cyani-
din 3-hexoside acylated with two hydroxycinnamic acids. Peaks 2
and 3 had similar UV–Vis spectra to that of peak 1, but the Akacyl/
Akmax were 68.8% and 67.0%, suggesting only one hydroxycinnamic
acid was acylated. The characteristic mass of m/z 287 showed they
were cyanidin derivatives, so peaks 2 and 3 were tentatively iden-
tified as cyanidin 3-glycoside acylated with one hydroxycinnamic
acid. Peak 4 also had similar UV–Vis spectra to the above anthocy-
anins, but the characteristic fragment mass was at m/z 301, a
typical mass of peonidin, and was tentatively identified as peoni-
din 3-glycoside acylated with one cinnamic acid (Table 1).
The HPLC method with ESIMS and DAD detection has been used
extensively in anthocyanin identification (Fossen vstedal, 2003;
Mullen, Lean, Crozier, 2002; Núñez, Monagas, Gomez-Cordovés,
Bartolomé, 2004). However, this method has its limitations. In
the present work, the method can obtain the molecular mass of
anthocyanins and identify whether they are acylated with
hydroxycinnamic acids and the molar ratio, but cannot confirm
their actual structures because not enough fragment ions are avail-
able. Even with satisfactory fragment ions, confirmation is difficult
because isomeric compounds may exist. In addition, the sugar moi-
ety of the anthocyanins cannot be identified as it may consist of a
disaccharide (e.g., rutinose) or more than two types of monosac-
charide substituted at different positions of the flavylium.
In previous reports, anthocyanins of cyanidin 3,5-diglucoside,
cyanidin 3-monoglucoside, and cyanidin 3-rhamnoglucoside (Raš-
per Coursey, 1967), cyanidin 3-gentibioside acylated with ferulic
acid, cyanidin 3-glucoside acylated with ferulic acid (Imbert Sea-
forth, 1968), cyanidin and peonidin 3-gentiobioside acylated with
sinapic acid (Shoyama et al., 1990), and alatanin A, B and C (Yos-
hida et al., 1991) have been detected in different yams. The present
946 Z. Fang et al. / Food Chemistry 128 (2011) 943–948

090303-2 2
12.51
3: Diode Array
530
1.4e-1 Range: 1.546e-1

1.2e-1

1.0e-1
1
12.23
AU

8.0e-2

6.0e-2
3
13.13
4.0e-2
4
14.74
2.0e-2
13.84
15.54
0.0 Time
4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00

Fig. 2. HPLC chromatogram of purple yam anthocyanins at 530 nm. Peak numbers refer to Table 1.

Table 1
Tentative identification of anthocyanins from purple yam using their spectral characteristics and positive ions in HPLC–DAD–ESIMS.

Peak no. TR (min) kmax(nm) kacyl(nm) Akacyl/Akmax A440/Akmax ESIMS(m/z) Tentative identification
1 12.23 530 332 121.3% 26.7% 287;449;773 Cyanidin 3-hexoside acylated with two hydroxycinnamic acids
2 12.51 532 332 68.8% 28.6% 287;817 Cyanidin 3-glycoside acylated with one hydroxycinnamic acid
3 13.13 532 331 67.0% 30.7% 287;787 Cyanidin 3-glycoside acylated with one hydroxycinnamic acid
4 14.74 532 333 75.8% 28.4% 301;831 Peonidin 3-glycoside acylated with one hydroxycinnamic acid

Fig. 3. HPLC chromatogram of purple yam phenolic acids detected at 320 nm. Peaks 1 and 2 were identified as sinapic acid and ferulic acid respectively.

work showed that the structures of anthocyanins in this Chinese
purple yam might be more complex. Moreover, even though 9
peaks with anthocyanin characteristics were detected, only 4 can
be tentatively identified by the HPLC–DAD–ESIMS technique alone,
because the UV–Vis and ESIMS spectra data from other peaks were
unclear. The quantification of anthocyanin and the total anthocya-
nin changes during vacuum frying were thus estimated by the pH
differential method.
yams. To our knowledge, only cinnamic acid has been detected
in a variety of D. alata L. (Martin Rubert, 1976).
Quantification of phenolic acids was calculated from the stan-
dard curves. The fresh yam had 135 mg/100 g DW of sinapic acid
and 31.3 mg/100 g DW of ferulic acid (Table 2). Compared with
potatoes and other vegetables (0.25–52 mg/100 g fresh weight)
(Mattila Hellström, 2007), phenolic acids in Chinese purple yam
were in the medium range.

3.3. Changes of moisture and fat content

3.2. Identification and quantification of phenolic acids
From the preliminary HPLC–DAD experiment, we know the
phenolic acids are relatively simpler than anthocyanins, so the
phenolic acids in purple yam were analysed by this method. Alka-
line hydrolysis was performed before HPLC separation to liberate
the possible conjugated forms (Swatsitang et al., 2000). Fig. 3
showed that two major phenolic acids were detected. Peak 1 elut-
ing at 7.23 min, has maximum absorbances at 323 and 238 nm.
After comparison with the pure standard, it was identified as sina-
pic acid. Peak 2 eluting at 7.94 min, has maximum absorbances at
323 and 217 nm, and was identified as ferulic acid when compared
to the standard. Phenolic acids have been rarely studied in the
It is well known that moisture loss and fat absorption are the
most important changes to materials used in vacuum frying. The
moisture and fat contents of the fresh purple yam were 78.0 g/
100 g FW and 0.88 g/100 g DW respectively, and blanching and
freezing had no obvious impacts on either (Table 2). After vacuum
frying, the moisture decreased to 2.28 g/100 g FW and the fat
increased to 33.3 g/100 g DW. The moisture content is a key index
for the shelf life of fried products, and the lower the moisture, the
safer the products. It had been noted that vacuum frying can get
lower moisture content than that of atmospheric frying for the
apple slices (Mariscal Bouchon, 2008). In the present work, the
fried purple yam chips had a water content of 2.28 g/100 g, in
 Z. Fang et al. / Food Chemistry 128 (2011) 943–948 947

Table 2
Contents of water, fat and phenolic compounds at each processing step of vacuum fried purple yam.a

Processing steps
Compounds Fresh yam Blanched Frozen Vacuum frying
Water (g/100 g)b 78.0 ± 0.50a 80.7 ± 0.52a 80.2 ± 0.47a 3.28 ± 0.25b
Fat (g/100 g) 0.88 ± 0.02a 0.83 ± 0.03a 0.81 ± 0.03a 33.3 ± 1.88b
ACN (mg/100 g)c 31.0 ± 2.35a 12.6 ± 1.65b 12.6 ± 1.54b 7.92 ± 1.03c
Sinapic acid (mg/100 g) 135 ± 5.27a 93.1 ± 7.53b 91.73 ± 5.71b 55.5 ± 3.32c
Ferulic acid (mg/100 g) 31.3 ± 1.08a 15.94 ± 1.15b 15.77 ± 1.05b 9.48 ± 1.11c
TPC (mg GAE/100 g)d 478 ± 11.62a 306 ± 7.74b 293 ± 8.93b 204 ± 5.49c
a
Different letters in the same row indicate significant difference (p < 0.05).
b
Water content is expressed as fresh weight and others are expressed as dry weight.
c
ACN: total anthocyanin content.
d
TPC: total phenolic content.

the range of other vacuum fried vegetables (0.28–3.42 g/100 g) (Da
Silva Moreira, 2008). The low water content of purple yam chips
might be associated with the pretreatment of freezing applied in
this work, which has been evidenced as an effective method for
water reduction during vacuum frying (Shyu, Hau, Hwang, 2005).
Fat is a main component in fried food, but excess consumption
of fat is a critical dietary contributor to coronary heart disease and
perhaps cancer of the breast, colon, and prostate (Browner, Wes-
tenhouse, Tice, 1991). Compared to the fat content of other vac-
uum fried products, such as carrot chips (30–40 g/100 g; Fan
et al., 2005), and green bean, mango, blue potato and sweet potato
(14–39 g/100 g; Da Silva Moreira, 2008), the purple yam chips also
had a medium fat content.
3.4. Changes of phenolic compounds
Using the pH differential estimation, the ACN in purple yam was
31.0 mg/100 g DW, but only about 40% retained after blanching
(Table 2 and Fig. 4). Blanching is commonly applied in fruit and
vegetable processing to inhibit the enzymatic browning caused
by polyphenol oxidase oxidation. The anthocyanins are water-sol-
uble pigments, and their solubility increases if they are glycosides
with more sugar moieties (Tomás-Barberán Robins, 1997). The
high anthocyanin loss during purple yam blanching is thus under-
standable since the high temperature can destroy the sensitive pig-
ments which can also leach out during blanching. This
phenomenon was also observed in bayberry (Fang, Zhang, Sun,
Sun, 2006) and blueberry (Skrede, Wrolstad, Durst, 2000) juice
processing. However, if processed without blanching, the anthocy-
anin loss increases (Fang et al., 2006; Skrede et al., 2000). Vacuum
frying caused a further anthocyanin decrease, with only about 26%
80
ACN
70
Sinapic acid
Ferulic acid
60
TPC
Retention (%)
retained in the vacuum-fried yam chips (Table 2 and Fig. 4). How-
ever, if calculation was based on the frozen sample, 63% of antho-
cyanins were maintained during vacuum frying, showing vacuum
frying caused less anthocyanin loss than blanching. In blue potato,
about 66% of anthocyanin was retained during vacuum frying
while only 26% was retained with atmospheric frying (Da Silva
Moreira, 2008).
Losses of 31% sinapic acid and 49% ferulic acid occurred during
purple yam blanching, indicating these acids were more stable
than anthocyanins (Table 2 and Fig. 4). The water solubility of
these two phenolic acids is lower than that of anthocyanins, which
would partly explain their lower losses during water blanching. In
contrast, about 60% of both acids was retained during vacuum fry-
ing, very close to that of the anthocyanin retention. There was 64%
and 42% of TPC maintained after blanching and vacuum frying,
similar to that of sinapic acid (Table 2 and Fig. 4). In the research
of other yams, heating ranging from 50 to 100 °C caused 50–70%
of TPC losses (Chen Lin, 2007). These results indicate vacuum fry-
ing of purple yam retains acceptable levels of phenolic compounds.
It should also be noted that freezing had almost no influence on
the phenolic contents, which was probably due to the short freez-
ing time (about 20 h) with polyphenols generally stable at low
temperatures. As had been mentioned earlier, the pretreatment
of freezing was aimed at reducing the water content during vac-
uum frying and providing a porous sponge-like structure to the
product (Shyu et al., 2005).
4. Conclusion
Three cyanidin derivatives and one peonidin derivative were
tentatively identified in a Chinese purple yam by HPLC–DAD–
ESIMS analysis, with sinapic acid and ferulic acid detected by
HPLC–DAD analysis, authenticated with standards. The blanching
process caused considerable losses for the contents of ACN, pheno-
lic acids and TPC, and vacuum frying caused a further decrease.
However, vacuum frying is a practical technique for purple yam
processing when retention of phenolic compounds is compared

50 to that obtained with other processing methods.

40
Acknowledgement
30

20 This work was financially supported by a General Scientific and

Technological Program (No. 2008C22013) of Zhejiang Province,
10 China. We also thank Dr. Lesleigh Force, the University of Queens-
0
land, for her professional English editing.
Blanching Frozen Vacuum frying
Processing steps
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