Browsing by Subject "durra"

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) has high contents of phenolic compounds which have both beneficial and antinutritional health effects, including forming insoluble complexes with proteins. This is significant because sorghum has low protein digestibility. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) fermentation has been found to decrease and modify sorghum phenolic compounds and condensed tannins. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the effects of LAB fermentation on the phenolic compounds in white and red sorghum using a metabolomics approach. The hypothesis was that fermentation would degrade phenolic compounds into smaller metabolites. Free phenolic compounds were extracted from sorghum using 80% ethanol. The samples were analysed using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a photodiode-array detector and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-PDA-Q-TOF). In order to identify phenolic compounds, both targeted and untargeted metabolomics approaches were used. Multivariate analysis was employed to determine compounds with different abundances between sample groups. The study confirmed the identification of 40 compounds, 37 of which were phenolic compounds, and 23 were distinct between sample groups. Red sorghum contained more flavonoids and condensed tannins compared to white sorghum. Native samples were statistically different from fermented samples, with most changes involving the release of phenolic acids from their conjugated forms and an increase in phenolamines. The metabolomics approach effectively covered the wide range of phenolic compound analysis in sorghum.