Actividad antioxidante, composición nutrimentaly funcional de flores comestibles de dalia

In Mexico, Dahlia flowers are commonly consumed in different type of dishes; however, there are no reports on characteristics as a functional food. Proximate composition, minerals, vitamin C, phenolic compounds, total anthocyanins, carotenoids and antioxidant activity of dahlia flowers were studied. In general, the highest values for the content of phenolic compounds, anthocyanins and antioxidant capacity were found in the purple dahlia (127.5 mg AG·g^-1, 257.5 mg pelargonidin·100 g^-1and 24 % of inhibition respectively). The type and concentration of phenolic compounds varied according to the color of the flower. The highest phenolic compound value was for hesperidin (398.9 mg·g^-1), while the most detected phenolic compounds in the flowers were gallic and caffeic acids. Based on these results, we can recommend the consumption of dahlia flowers as functional food because it provides phenolic compounds (specially the dark-colored dahlia flowers, since they had the highest phenolic composition and antioxidant activity).