Accelerated solvent extraction for liquid chromatographic determination of carotenoids in durum wheat pasta. A chemometric approach using statistical experimental design

In recent decades, the consumption of wholegrain products associated with health benefits has become habitual. In this context, wholemeal pasta – rich in bioactive substances with antioxidant properties, such as carotenoids – has received particular interest among consumers over the years. Carotenoids, involved in the prevention of many degenerative diseases, are also used as markers of the color quality of durum wheat pasta. The present research aims to investigate the functional quality of wholemeal pasta compared to traditional durum wheat pasta in terms of carotenoid content. 50 commercially samples were extracted by accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and analyzed by HPLC-DAD. A central composite design (CCD) was used to optimize the ASE extraction parameters. A classification method (partial least squares-discriminant analysis, PLS-DA) was then applied to the collected chromatographic profiles to build a model that could allow to differentiate refined pasta from wholemeal pasta in terms of carotenoid level. The resulting classification model made it possible to correctly predict more than 95% of the validation samples, highlighting a significant difference between the two types of pasta both in terms of the entire chromatographic profile and, specifically, of the amount of lutein. In fact, the highest lutein levels were found in all wholemeal pasta samples analyzed. Lutein is a promising biologically active component, also used in recent years as a food supplement. The results obtained could provide the food industry with an objective tool to enhance the use of raw materials with high nutritional content.