Soymilk phenolic compounds, isoflavones and antioxidant activity as affected by in vitro gastrointestinal digestion

The aim of this research was to evaluate changes in the phenolic compounds, isoflavones and antioxidant activity of soymilk following in vitro gastrointestinal digestion (including dialysis). Gastric digestion significantly influenced the release of bioactive substances from the soymilk matrix, increasing the concentration of total phenolic components (35% as the sum of individuals and 14% by Folin–Ciocalteu [F–C] method), total isoflavone content (22%) and total antioxidant activity (76%). The concentration of all those compounds was reduced significantly in the duodenal fraction in comparison to gastric digestion and their lowest concentration was observed in the dialysed fraction, where phenolic acids were not detected. The bioaccessibility of soymilk phenolic compounds was 15% as the sum of individuals and 20% by F–C assay; isoflavones 36% and constituents with antioxidant activity 27%. Results suggest that most of these compounds were sufficiently available to be absorbed and could contribute health benefits.