Apple or Pineapple? The importance to be reactive in the protection from free radicals.

The evaluation of antioxidant rich foods and their role in human health are still open problems also in the gastrointestinal tract. On the bases of a rigorous kinetic model we have developed an oxygraphic method to calculate the amount of peroxyl radicals and the efficiency of trapping them by foods under conditions occurring in the digestive tract. By this method it is possible to assign to each food characteristic values of capacity and efficiency in trapping peroxyl radicals and to rank foods according to these parameters and serving size. On the basis of the conditions occurring in the digestive tract it appears that the efficiency rather than capacity is the parameter that must be considered in the protection from free radicals. Therefore pineapple, that on the contrary of apple, is characterized by a high efficiency with respect to capacity appears more suitable in the protection from free radicals in this body compartment.