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The nutritional values and phytochemical composition of young shoots of wild Asparagus stipularis Forssk. from Tunisia were determined in this study. The antioxidant (tested by four different in vitro assays) and antiproliferative properties (against human tumour cell lines) of aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts of the young shoots were also investigated. The obtained results indicated that the young shoots are a potential source of valuable nutrients and dietary fiber, and their hydroalcoholic extract showed marked antioxidant and antiproliferative activities in all tested assays. The major phenolic compound, characterized by using a high-performance liquid chromatograph coupled with diode-array and mass spectrometer detectors, in both extracts was diferuloyl glycerol. Our results reinforce the interest in recovering the traditional culinary uses of this wild plant, with potential functional properties, which can be included in the modern diet as an alternative to the variety of vegetables normally used.

Pulses are well known to be gluten-free functional foods that provide a rich source of nutritional and healthy compounds with antioxidant-promoting activity. In the present study, the bioactive compounds, dietary fibre, arabinoxylans, individual phenolic compounds and tocopherols, were evaluated in different lentil flours (raw and extruded at 140 and 160 °C) formulated with nutritional yeasts, along with the changes induced by the extrusion process. The total dietary fibre and arabinoxylan content significantly (p < 0.05) increased after the extrusion process while a significant decrease of all tocopherol isoforms was also observed. Catechin, caffeic, kaempferol and quercetin derivatives were identified in the raw and extruded lentil flours. The decreases of total phenolic and individual phenolic compounds were directly related to the extrusion temperature; total phenolics and catechin hexoside exhibited a larger decrease in the lentil flours formulated with higher content of nutritional yeast (12 and 16%). The antioxidant activity results, determined using different assays, reflected the important effect of extrusion processing and food ingredients.