Biochemical Changes in Raw Food

Part 1 : Fruit, Vegetables, Cereal

Binardo Adi Seno
Introduction

• Characteristics of fruits and vegetables such as flavor, color,

size, shape and absence of external defects ultimately
determine their acceptance by consumers
• The development of these characteristics is the result of many
chemical and biochemical changes that occur following
harvesting and storage
• In general, living phase of fruit and vegetables :
– Growth
– Maturation
– Ripening
– Senescence
• The growth and maturation are dependent on photosynthesis
and absorption of water and minerals
– Basically, all carbohydrates are derived by the photosynthetic
reduction of CO2, and the hexoses (glucose, fructose) and pentoses
(ribose, ribulose) that are intermediates in the pathway are further
converted to several sugar monomers.
– Polymerization of several sugar derivatives leads to various storage
(starch) and structural components (cellulose, pectin).
• After post harvest, factors affecting : respiration and
transpiration and biochemical changes by enzymes –
senescense
• Deterioration caused by undesirable enzyme activity and
spoilage microorganism
• Biochemical changes in postharvest fruit and vegetables :
– Respiration
– Initiation of Ripening – biosynthesis of ethylene
– Changes in carbohydrate composition
– Color changes
– Texture changes (Softening)
– Flavor changes : formation of aroma volatiles and accumulation of
organic acid
Respiration

• The fundamental process where by living organisms carry out

the exothermic conversion of potensial energy into kinetic
energy
• In higher plants, the major storage products are starch. During
photosynthesis, the glucose formed is converted to starch and
stored as starch granules.
– The light reaction convert solar energy
to chemical energy (produce ATP&NADPH)
– The Calvin Cycle make sugar from CO2
– 6CO2 + 6H2O + light  C6H12O6 + 6O2
• Respiration is the process by which plants take in oxygen and
give out carbon dioxide.
• The completely respiration process :
C6H12O6 + 6O2  6CO2 + 6H2O + energy (heat and ATP)
• Climacteric defined those physical, chemical, physiological,
and metabolic changes associated with the increase rate of
respiration covering the transiton phase from growth and
maturation to the final stage of senescence  respiratory
curve
• Fruits classified as either climacteric or non climacteric
according to their respiratory rates
– Climacteric : apple, appricot, avocado, banana, breadfruit, fig, guava,
musmelon cantaloupe
– Non climacteric : blueberry, grape, lemon, orange, pineapple.
Strawberry, honeydew
• Vegetables can be classified as high, low or intermediate
according to the respiration rate
– Young tissue (parts of asparagus), developing seeds of green peas has
high respiration rate
– Storage organs such as stems (potatoes), roots (sweet potatoes) and
bulb (onion) have low rates
– Leafy vegetables appear to be intermediate
• The metabolic pathways involved in the respiration of plant
tissue result in the conversion of starch to glucose 6-P
• The latter is then oxidized by glycolysis (Embden-Meyerhoff
pathway) or the pentose phosphate pathway to triose
phosphate, which enters the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA
cycle) by way of piruvate
• In the absence of oxygen, anaerobic respiration occurs
• Anaerobic respiration is a common event in the respiration of
ripe fruits and especially becomes significant when fruits are
exposed to low temperatures.
 Oxidative
Decarboxylation

Penthose Phosphate
Pathway
Initiation of Ripening

• Ethylene is one of many volatile substances emanating from

fruits and vegetables as the active component for the
stimulation of ripening
• Thus ethylene was soon recognized as a plant hormone that
initiates the ripening process as well as regulating many aspects
of plant growth, development and senescence
• The main mechanism accompanied by an increase in oxygen
uptake
• Other hormones also appear to play important roles;
particularly, declining levels of auxin and increasing levels of
abscisic acid may control the onset of ripening in non-
climacteric species
• Biosynthesis of Ethylene
– Ethylene is biosynthesized through a common pathway that uses the
amino acid methionine as the precursor
Color Changes

• One of the first changes during the ripening of many fruits is

the loss of green colour
• In the case of leafy vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, the
loss of chlorophyll is also responsible for the symptom of
yellowing during senescence
• The development of colours in some fruits and vegetables is
due to the formation of carotenoids and anthocyanins
Fruit immature Ripe
Apple Green Red
Banana Green Yellow
Pear Green Yellow
Strawberry Green Red
Chlorophyll Changes during Ripening
• Ethylene promote the degradation of chlorophyll during fruit
ripening
• The initial step in chlorophyll breakdown in plant tissues is
hydrolysis to chlorophyllide and phytol. The reaction is
catalyzed by the enzyme chlorophyllase
• During the maturation of many fruits there is a change of
color from green to orange or red
– This is due to the loss in chlorophyll and the unmasking and synthesis
of carotenoids
• Structural changes chloroplast (the granal-integranal network)
becomes disorganized, resulting in the formation of
chromoplast  the major site for carotenoid biosynthesis
Texture Changes

• The texture of fruis and vegetables is related to the structure

and organization of the plant cell walls and intercellular
cementing substances
• The cell wall composed of cellulose fibrils located in a matrix
of pectic substances, hemicellulose, proteins, lignin, low
molecular weight solutes and water
• During the ripening of fruits, a loss of texture results from the
deterioration of the primary cell wall constituents
• This is in sharp contrast to the maturation of vegetables which
is accompanied by a toughening of the texture  the
development of the secondary cell walls in vegetables 
lignin deposition
• Softening of several fruits caused by:
– Cell wall degradation  this involves the degradation of cellulose
components, pectin components, or both.
• Cellulose is degraded by the enzyme cellulase or -1,4-glucanase.
• Pectin degradation involvesthe enzymes pectin methylesterase,
polygalacturonase (pectinase), and -galactosidase.
– Starch Degradation
• During ripening, starch is catabolized into glucose and fructose, which
enter the metabolic pool, where they are used as respiratory substrates or
further converted to other metabolites
Flavor Changes

• The flavor of fruit and vegetables is a complex interaction

between aroma and taste
• Aroma is produced by the volatiles synthesized during fruit
ripening and includes aldehydes, alcohols, esters, lactones,
terpenes and sulfur compounds
• Taste is provided by many nonvolatile components, including
sugars and acids present in the fruit flesh
• Fruit volatile compounds are mainly comprised of diverse
classes of chemicals, including esters, alcohols, aldehydes,
ketones, lactones, and terpenoids.
• There are several pathways involved in volatile
biosynthesis
• An important step in the biosynthetic pathway of aroma
compounds is the availability of primary precursor
substrates, including fatty acids and amino acids
• Fatty Acid Pathway
– Fatty acids are major precursors of aroma volatiles in most fruit
– Fatty acid-derived straight chain alcohols, aldehydes, ketones,
acids, esters and lactones ranging from C1 to C20 are important
character-impact aroma compounds that are responsible for
fresh fruit flavors with high concentrations
– Basically formed by three processes: α-oxidation, β-oxidation
and the lipoxygenase pathway
• Amino acid pathway
– Amino acid, such as alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine
and aspartic acid, are also involved in aroma biosynthesis in fruit as
direct precursors, and their metabolism is responsible for the
production of a broad number of compounds, including alcohols,
carbonyls, acids and esters
– Amino acids can undergo an initial deamination or transamination
leading to the formation of the corresponding α-keto acid. Subsequent
decarboxylation followed by reductions, oxidations and/or
esterifications give rise to aldehydes, acids, alcohols and esters
• Terpenoid Pathway
– The terpenoids compose the largest class of plant secondary
metabolites with many volatile representatives.
– Hemiterpenes (C5), monoterpenes (C10), sesquiterpenes (C15),
homoterpenes (C11 and C16), and some diterpenes (C20) have a high
vapor pressure allowing their release into the atmosphere.
Biochemical Changes in Cereal

• The cereal seed is composed of three main tissues : the

embryo, the endosperm and the aleurone layer surrounding
the storage endosperm
• The largest portion of the seed is the endosperm, which
provides the nutrients necessary for embryo development
during germination
• The nutrients are made available by the release of enzymes
from the aleurone layer and embryo which hydrolyze the
endosperm reserve
• These reserves are contained in discrete storage bodies
identified as starch granules and protein bodies
Biosynthesis of Starch
• Starch synthesis is achieved through the action of starch
synthase
• Substrate adenosine diphosphoglucose (ADPG) or uridine
diphosphoglucose ( UDPG)
• Reaction involves phosphorylase or synthetase leading to
formation of the linear polymer amylose
• The branch points (ά-(1,6)-D-glucosidic linkage) required for
amylopectin are introduced by the branching enzyme Q-
enzyme
Protein bodies
• Protein bodies are membran-bound cellular organelles
containing storage proteins located in the starchy endosperm
of cereals
• They are also found in the aleurone layer, although these
differ in composition, structure and function
• The development of cereal seed protein is associated with at
least three stages :
– Rapid cell division
– Increase in the rough endoplasmic reticulum and accumulation of
soluble nucleotides
– Rapid synthesis of storage proteins, related to initiation and synthesis
of messenger RNA as well as the efficiency of mRNA translation
Storage of Grains
• The quality affected by moisture, temperature, and invasion
by rodents, insects, bacteria and fungi
• Very little respiration occurs  cereal grains must dry
• Carbohydrate changed very little (maltose and sucrose)
• Crude protein and salt-soluble protein content remained
unchanged
• Vitamin B1 unchanged
• As long as the wheat was protected from atmospheric
moisture, rapid temperature changes and insects, the baking
quality remained intact