Alk(en)ylresorcinols in mango (Mangifera indica L.) and cereals

Although alk(en)ylresorcinols, natural non-isoprenoid phenolic lipids, are found in an increasing number of plants, fungi and bacteria, among plants commonly used for human nutrition these compounds are only present in the peel of mango fruit and in several cereals such as wheat, rye and barley. A broad range of biological activities of alk(en)ylresorcinols have been demonstrated in vitro as well in vivo, however, adverse properties such as contact allergenic properties of alk(en)ylresorcinols from mango on the one hand side and proposed health promoting properties and the potential use as biomarkers for whole grain intake of cereal alk(en)ylresorcinols on the other hand, do not allow the emergence of a consistent picture of their biological significance. Despite the great importance of mango peel alk(en)ylresorcinols from a dermatological point of view, studies into structure, quantities and occurrence of these compounds in fruit products are astonishingly very scarce, and their fate during technological processing is largely unknown. Moreover, mango as well as other parts of the plant have widely been applied in traditional medicine against a variety of disorders and alk(en)ylresorcinols are likely candidates contributing to some of the therapeutic effects. Thus, one part of this study mainly aimed at the chemical and biological characterization of alk(en)ylresorcinols from mango. Cereals are the most important dietary source of alk(en)ylresorcinols, and albeit much better studied, data about their detailed composition are still lacking and were therefore required from a nutritional point of view. Moreover, cereal alkylresorcinols should be shown to be suitable marker compounds for authenticity control of whole grain durum wheat flour and pasta, thus enabling the detection of fraudulent admixture of cheaper common wheat.