PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS IN NATIVE POTATO (SOLANUM TUBEROSUM L.) COOKING WATER, WITH POTENTIAL ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY

On that area, hunter-gatherer communities that had inhabited the southern part of the continent for at least 7000 years began to domesticate wild potato plants, growing in abundance around the lake, which they used as food and medicine. Potato is currently the fourth most important crop in the world for its high yield and nutritional value; it is an excellent source of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals and is a rich source of antioxidants (Buono et al., 2009; Ezekiel et al., 2013). For two decades, there has been an increasing interest in finding natural antioxidants, because they can protect the human body from free radicals and slow down the progress of many chronic diseases (Kinsella et al., 1993). Ot has been demonstrated in vivo that the phenolic compounds of the potato are substances that have antioxidant, antiproliferative and anticancer properties (Han et al., 2007; Thompson et al., 2009) and the benefits for human health have also been tested in vitro (Madiwale et al., 2011; Ji et al., 2012), for their anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antimicrobial, neuroprotective, and cardioprotective action (Dng et al., 2013; André et al., 2014) and its antihyperglycemic effect (Singh & Rajini, 2005). Chlorogenic acid was investigated for its protective effects on glutamate-induced neuronal cell death because the release of glutamate during brain ischemia triggers the death of neurons and prevents the increase of intracellular concentrations of Ca2+ caused by the addition of glutamate (Mikami & Yamazawa, 2015). Studies have also shown that it is a phenolic compound that exerts anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities; results suggest that chlorogenic acid protects against induced liver fibrosis, at least in part, through the suppression of oxidative stress in liver and hepatic stellate cells (Shi et al., 2016). Dn the other hand, caffeic acid has been studied in cervical cancer cell lines (HeLa cancer cells) and found to have significant antiproliferative effects on this type of cell (Markovic & Tosovic, 2016; Ye et al., 2010). Another study shows that when caffeic acid was applied to hair cells at doses of 10 or 50 mg/mL, they exhibited free radical scavenging Phenolic compounds in native potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cooking water, with potential antioxidant activity