Title: Identification of main human urinary metabolite produced after genipap (Genipa americana L.) juice intake

Biography:

Livia Dickson has completed her PhD in food science, nutrition and applied biotechnology in 2018, from the University of Montpellier, France and Federal University of Para, Brazil. She has published part of her PhD results in Nutrients Journal and is awaiting corrections for the publication of the second paper.

Abstract

The present study used the untargeted metabolomics analysis to evaluate the metabolites produced after drink a single 500-mL dose of genipap juice and identify biomarkers of exposure. Food biomarker discovery is essential to develop new strategies to reduce the risk factor of noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes. Genipap (Genipa americana L.) is a native fruit from Amazonia that contains bioactive compounds with a wide range of bioactivities. The urine of sixteen healthy free-living men before and after drink genipap juice was analysed by liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry. XCMS package was used for data processing in the R environment and t-tests were applied on log-transformed and Pareto-scaled data to select the significant metabolites. The principal components analysis (PCA) score plots showed a clear distinction between experimental groups. The value of the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve validated the identified biomarkers. Thirty-three metabolites were putatively annotated. Thirteen were putatively characterized as iridoids metabolites, and together with phenolic derivatives forms were the main metabolites identified. For the first time, the bioavailability of genipap iridoids after human consumption is reported. These molecules may be used as a specific biomarker of genipap consumption. The human exposure to genipap reveals that this fruit trigger effects on metabolic signatures. Our results give an essential contribution to the knowledge about the bioavailability of bioactive compounds presents in genipap. It can be used in epidemiological studies to help to understand the natural use to treat some diseases.