# Antioxidant and Potentially Anti-Inflammatory Properties in Pasta Fortified with Onion Skin
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Antioxidant Activity  
Flavonoids and phenolic acids, mostly via radical-scavenging mechanisms, are the most important chemical classes exhibiting antioxidant activity. During dry onion skin formation or storage, the glucosides of quercetin are converted into quercetin. Therefore, the concentration of that compound is the highest in the abaxial epidermis of onion [48]. Quercetin is a strong in vitro antioxidant with the ability to scavenge free radicals and chelate metal ions, and in addition, it possesses anti-inflammatory properties. According to the current state of knowledge, quercetin, as well as organosulfur compounds, are probably responsible for the anti-obesity potential of _Allium cepa_[3; 49]. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Compounds**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Raw Pasta Materials**} \\ \cline{2-3}  & **SE** & **OS** \\ \hline PAC (\(\mu\)g/g DW) & 2.74 \(\pm\) 0.46  \\ Q (mg/g DW) & 0.00 \(\pm\) 0.00  \\ Q 4\({}^{\prime}\) G (mg/g DW) & 0.00 \(\pm\) 0.00  \\ \hline Antioxidant activity & SE & OS \\ \hline ABTS\({}^{+}\) (mg Trolox/g DW) & 0.09 \(\pm\) 0.03  \\ RP (mg Trolox/g DW) & 2.36 \(\pm\) 0.65  \\ CHP (mg EDTA/g DW) & 0.08 \(\pm\) 0.02  \\ \hline Anti-inflammatory activity & SE & OS \\ \hline LOX inhibition (IC50 mg DW/mL) & 0.2759 \(\pm\) 0.0029 [FOOTNOTE:]Footnote : footnotemark: [ENDFOOTNOTE] & 0.0044 \(\pm\) 0.0000 [FOOTThe dry skin of onion, which was used in this research as a potential addition to pasta, had high antioxidant activity (Table 1), which was reflected in the properties of fortified pastas (Figure 2). Semolina showed significantly lower antioxidant properties (probably caused by the presence of carotenoids), but as mentioned previously, its main function is to form a network structure of the dough, which significantly affects the quality of the final product. [PERSON] et al. [42] confirmed that fractions from the durum wheat endosperm (i.e., semolina) had the lowest antioxidant activity and phenolic content of all the milling grain fractions. Figure 2: Cont. High phenolic content, like that observed in OS as an ingredient in pasta making, could be responsible for the high antioxidant activity of fortified pastas (Figure 2). As predicted on the basis of Q and PAC content results, cooking the pasta caused an increase in the antioxidant activity, which has been determined by three complementary methods of analysis (Figure 2). The ABTS free radical scavenging activity was significantly higher in cases of the extracts from all uncooked enriched pastas; however, the highest value of this activity for the P7.5 sample was observed. Additionally, the same observations for samples after cooking should be noted (nearly 30-fold higher ABTS antiradical activity for P7.5 sample in comparison to the cooked control pasta). A slightly stronger improvement of the reducing power (RP) was observed in samples from the fortified pastas (in comparison to the control samples). The ABTS and RP activity of extracts increased with the increase of onion skin concentration; however, the increase in CHP value was statistically not significant. The antioxidant activities of pastas with onion skin powder was most significantly higher than in the control pastas, both cooked and uncooked (Figure 2). An increase in the antioxidant capacity of bakery products supplemented with onion was confirmed in other studies. [PERSON] et al. [50] and [PERSON] et al. [19] investigated the effect of addition of powder from different onion cultivars on the quality of rolls and bread. In addition, in other studies concerning pasta enriched with phenolic-abundant plant ingredients, higher antioxidant properties with increased plant concentrations were observed [16; 17; 44; 45; 46]. Because cooking methods can significantly change the bioavailability and bioactivity of phenolic compounds [14; 48], studies on pastas after cooking are very important issues while creating new functional pastas.