| Resumo: | Mushrooms are very perishable foods, demanding for processing technologies that retain chemical and nutritional characteristics of fresh forms. In this work, the influence of freezing, drying and gamma irradiation on chemical parameters and antioxidant potential of Macrolepiota procera was assessed through one-way ANOVA complemented with principal component analysis. Proximate composition was evaluated by AOAC procedures, while fatty acids, tocopherols and free sugars were determined using chromatographic techniques. Antioxidant activity was measured using in vitro assays. M. procera samples have low energetic values, with moisture and carbohydrates as major nutrients. Linoleic, palmitic and oleic acids were the major fatty acids; δ-tocopherol was the prevalent isoform in fresh, frozen and irradiated samples, while β-tocopherol predominated in dried samples. Trehalose was the most abundant sugar in fresh and irradiated samples, whereas mannitol predominated in frozen and dried samples. Dried samples gave higher DPPH scavenging activity and β-carotene bleaching inhibition; freeze and irradiated samples showed higher reducing power and TBARS formation inhibition, respectively. Overall, freezing and drying caused significant differences in chemical parameters. On the other hand, gamma irradiation revealed the highest capacity to retain chemical profile of fresh samples, which highlights its potential to be explored and validated as an alternative conservation methodology.
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