# Nutritional, Antioxidant, Sensory, Energetic, and Electrical Properties of Enriched Pasta
## 4 Discussion  
Enriched pasta is very popular and attractive, not only to the pasta industry, but also to consumers. Plant raw materials are very beneficial ingredients to improve nutritional and antioxidant properties of cereal products. Nettle leaf, carrot, and elderberry fruit powder addition in amounts of 3% positively influenced nutritional, antioxidant, and sensory profiles of pasta. Nettle powder addition increased the amount of ash; likewise, with carrot and elderberry, the amount was higher compared to the control variant. [PERSON] et al. [4] used flaxseed flour as an addition to pasta, and the ash content was higher (4.94%) compared to control variant (0.91%). [PERSON] et al. [3] prepared pasta with leek (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 g/100 g), and the ash content was also higher than in compared control sample. Fat content was significantly higher in pasta with elderberry powder addition. Elderberry fruits are a very good source of bioactive compounds and fatty acids. Polyunsaturated omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids were determined in the study of [PERSON] et al. [32]. These authors detected 38.12 g/100 g of omega-3 and 39.54 g/100 g omega-6 fatty acids in elderberries, and the authors also argued that this fruit can be a potential source of antioxidant compounds for the food industry. Amino acids in foods are very important for human health and for the normal functioning of the human body. Especially, the amount of essential amino acids is the key factor for cereal products, which are at the base of the human diet according to the food pyramid. Unfortunately, lysine is only present in cereals at low levels; therefore, the addition of plant-based raw materials can be an ideal tool to increase these levels. The addition of nettle leaves increased the amount of lysine as well as the amount of serine, glycine, alanine, and tyrosine. A higher value of essential amino acids was obtained in the study of [PERSON] and [PERSON] [33]. These authors analyzed pasta enriched with 3% spinach powder and found higher values, especially for lysine and threonine, in comparison to the control variant without any addition. Antioxidant activity, as well as polyphenol and phenolic acid contents, were higher in enriched pasta when compared to the control variant. Nettle leaves are rich in polyphenol groups, mainly in ferulic, syringic and vanillin acids. Nettle has some antimicrobial effects because of its phenolic contents. Nettle could inhibit _Staphylococcus aureus_, _Bacillus cereus_, and _Listeria monocytogenes_[34]. According to this information, it can be argued that pasta with the nettle addition can be stored for a long time compared to the control variant. Carrot is a very good source of bioactive compounds, such as carotenoids, which also positively influence the color of enriched cereal products. Out of the polyphenol groups in carrot, it is possible to find chlorogenic acid, _p_-hydroxybenzoic acids, along with numerous cinnamic acid derivatives [35]. All these compounds can increase the antioxidant activity of enriched products compared to control sample. Carrot powder at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30% was incorporated into wheat flour to produce pasta in the study of [PERSON] et al. [36]. The quality of the resulting wheat-carrot pasta was very good from a nutritional point of view. Increments in vitamins B\({}_{1}\) (0.41 to 0.44 mg/100 g), B\({}_{3}\) (3.35 to 3.80 mg/100 g), B\({}_{6}\) (0.38 to 0.54 mg/100 \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Sample** & **Z (kf\(\Omega\))** & \(\delta_{Z}\) **(\%)** & \(\rho\) **(k\(\Omega\cdot\)m)** & \(\delta_{\rho}\) **(\%)** \\ \hline
**control** & 12854.114 & - & 312.440 & - \\
**nettle** & 11918.586 & \(-\)7.278 & 475.447 & 52.172 \\
**carrot** & 6483.345 & \(-\)49.562 & 9.715 & \(-\)96.891 \\
**elderberry** & 1693.924 & \(-\)86.822 & 2.938 & \(-\)99.060 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 8: Relative differences of impedance \(\delta_{Z}\) and resistivity \(\delta_{\rho}\) compared to the control.