Nutritional pork meat compounds as affected by ham dry-curing.

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Nutritional Biochemistry
• Meat Science

Background:

• Pork meat contains various compounds of nutritional interest.
• Understanding the impact of dry-curing on these compounds is crucial for product quality and health benefits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the levels of key nutritional compounds in pork meat.
• To evaluate how dry-curing processing affects these compounds and their bioactivities.
• To assess the antioxidant and antihypertensive potential of compounds in dry-cured ham.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of creatine, creatinine, coenzyme Q(10), glutathione, carnosine, anserine, carnitine, taurine, cystine, cysteine, and essential amino acids.
• Quantification of these compounds before and after dry-curing processing.
• Evaluation of the antioxidant and antihypertensive activities of the identified compounds.

Main Results:

• Glutathione was completely depleted during processing.
• Carnosine, creatinine, anserine, and glutathione exhibited antioxidant properties.
• Cysteine, glutathione, and carnosine demonstrated antihypertensive activity.
• All essential amino acids significantly increased during dry-curing.

Conclusions:

• Dry-cured ham is an excellent source of essential amino acids.
• The processing preserves or enhances levels of nutritionally valuable compounds like cystine, cysteine, carnosine, anserine, taurine, carnitine, and coenzyme Q(10).
• Dry-cured ham offers significant antioxidant and antihypertensive benefits due to its compound profile.