The impact of cooking and delivery modes of thymol and carvacrol on retention and bioaccessibility in starchy foods

Abstract

Oregano and thyme possess beneficial properties for human health, mainly attributable to monoterpenessuch as thymol and carvacrol. The main objective of this research was to assess, on starchy food, theimpact of cooking (boiling and baking) and delivery (ground leaves and essential oil) modes on retentionand bioaccessibility of thymol and carvacrol. Retention was assessed after cooking, while bioaccessibilitywas estimated in cooked samples using an in vitro digestion model. Our results indicate that bioaccessibilitywas weakly dependent on cooking and delivery modes (27–33%). Boil cooking presented 20% moreretention than baking for both compounds. When essential oil was added to the food matrix, thymol wasretained almost 25% more when compared with ground leaves’ addition. Conversely, carvacrol wasretained 39% more when ground leaves were added.