Impact of food processing methods on nutraceutical and anti-nutritional properties of different forms of beetroot: A synergistic approach towards iron deficiency anemia

Impact of food processing methods on nutraceutical and anti-nutritional properties of different forms of beetroot: A synergistic approach towards iron deficiency anemia | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Impact of food processing methods on nutraceutical and anti-nutritional properties of different forms of beetroot: A synergistic approach towards iron deficiency anemia Athira Mundassery, Jancirani Ramaswamy, Meera Balachandran, Krishnaswamy K, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6095681/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Archived Versions: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Iron deficiency anemia is a widespread public health issue affecting millions of people. To prevent this condition, the formulation of food with a synergistic approach has a crucial role in micronutrient absorption as it maximizes nutrient bioavailability. In this study, the effect of different food processing methods on different forms of beetroot was evaluated and optimized based on iron absorption. Iron, folate, beta-carotene, ascorbic acid, and saponin were predominantly retained in juice with residue form. Pressure-cooking facilitated the retention of citric acid (95%), especially in the juice with residue and residue forms, while open pan-cooking caused greater degradation of citric acid. Citric and ascorbic acids exhibit strong synergistic activity towards iron absorption hence retention of these acids would enhance iron bioavailability. The antinutrient oxalate decreased after processing, whereas the tannin level increased, except in pressure-cooked juice and juice with residue. Pressure-cooked juice with residue form was found to be best for retaining iron content by around 92% and decreasing antinutrients by around 26-43%. A notable improvement was observed in other nutrients around 52% with retaining nutraceutical properties. Despite reductions in certain compounds such as nitrates, betanin, and vulgaxanthin, the overall nutritional improvements make pressure-cooked juice with residue a highly favorable option for maximizing bioavailability and promoting health benefits, especially in iron deficiency anemia. In most of the clinical trials, beetroot is supplemented in raw juice form to reduce anemia. This study observed that pressure cooked juice with residue is far better than the raw juice form for supplementation. Synergy iron anemia beetroot juice processing Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Full Text Additional Declarations Competing interest reported. The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Dr Jancirani Ramaswamy reports financial support was provided by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University [ASG2022201]. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Cite Share Download PDF Archived Versions: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6095681","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[{"code":2,"date":"2025-08-28 18:11:46","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":507063873,"identity":"57a3f8b9-8437-11f0-907b-06cc9d20a69f","order_by":0,"name":"Athira Mundassery","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Amrita School of Physical Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Athira","middleName":"","lastName":"Mundassery","suffix":""},{"id":507063880,"identity":"5fb18978-8437-11f0-907b-06cc9d20a69f","order_by":1,"name":"Jancirani Ramaswamy","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA60lEQVRIie3PPQrCMBTA8SeFukS6PgnYK1QEP+hlIgVdKngAKQHB1bWgh9Dd4YmgV1Dq4uLkpODiYqwKTomjYP5DPuD9CAGw2X6wAECoDSuA+f1zNZDaexi/IXlt+RozkwbA4dIfNLvjiSycd4tm4klnmTENaUmIeLrGXronh8dHRCQ3CnUkIBC8JLE3QwE8JvUXYnVuINFNkW6Awrk9iE/e1UQ6j1eEIm7+SkDM1RL1l07I1lhN98tRqEh5vnJrramGNIBFGRskvjcZrrKYEq+yGR62Jw0B/yRep4J87o5uPK9IxhGbzWb78+7kXkJ44LmUzQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Amrita School of Physical Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jancirani","middleName":"","lastName":"Ramaswamy","suffix":""},{"id":507063949,"identity":"66dcd8cd-8437-11f0-907b-06cc9d20a69f","order_by":2,"name":"Meera Balachandran","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Meera","middleName":"","lastName":"Balachandran","suffix":""},{"id":507063984,"identity":"6f4d3165-8437-11f0-907b-06cc9d20a69f","order_by":3,"name":"Krishnaswamy K","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Missouri","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Krishnaswamy","middleName":"","lastName":"K","suffix":""},{"id":507064069,"identity":"786734f9-8437-11f0-907b-06cc9d20a69f","order_by":4,"name":"Sivasabari Kathirvel","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Amrita School of Agricultural Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sivasabari","middleName":"","lastName":"Kathirvel","suffix":""},{"id":507064230,"identity":"827a3c26-8437-11f0-907b-06cc9d20a69f","order_by":5,"name":"Prema Nedungadi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Amrita Create, Amrita School of Computing, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Prema","middleName":"","lastName":"Nedungadi","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-02-24 10:08:28","currentVersionCode":2,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6095681/v2","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6095681/v2","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-41872-x","type":"published","date":"2026-03-18T15:58:55+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":90123118,"identity":"4dbb0773-52d2-4675-9afb-668429b499c1","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-28 18:19:51","extension":"jpeg","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":867104,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eFigures 1a and 1b represent the mean and standard deviation values of the effect of thermal processing methods on DPPH, ABTS, H\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e, TPC, and TFC in beetroot juice with residue variant. RJ+R, PJ+R, SJ+R, and OJ+R represent raw juice with residue, pressure-cooked juice with residue, steam-cooked juice with residue, and open pan-cooked juice with residue. All values are statistically significant at p\u0026lt;0.05.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure1.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6095681/v2/21148bafd2c819eed323ec04.jpeg"},{"id":90122918,"identity":"a97ff861-190a-46b6-ac5a-604e65727a02","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-28 18:11:51","extension":"jpeg","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":857164,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eFigures 2a and 2b represent the mean and standard deviation values of the effect of thermal processing methods on DPPH, ABTS, H\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e, TPC, and TFC in the beetroot juice. RJ, PJ, SJ, and OJ represent raw juice, pressure-cooked juice, steam-cooked juice, and open pan-cooked juice. All values are statistically significant at p\u0026lt;0.05.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure2.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6095681/v2/96e1db5e50993f5e9cfd564b.jpeg"},{"id":90122919,"identity":"5a51b080-4994-4a64-a220-83f9ec7e84eb","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-28 18:11:51","extension":"jpeg","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":866814,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eFigures 3a and 3b represent the mean and standard deviation values of the effect of thermal processing methods on DPPH, ABTS, H\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e, TPC, and TFC in the beetroot residue variant. RR, PR, SR, and OR represent raw residue, pressure-cooked residue, steam-cooked residue, and open pan-cooked residue. All values are statistically significant at p\u0026lt;0.05.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure3.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6095681/v2/9a243f2779a0bf175016321a.jpeg"},{"id":90122917,"identity":"84262655-d433-427a-bf59-ae4aed38e005","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-28 18:11:51","extension":"jpeg","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":813430,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eFigure 4 represents the sensory parameters of different processing methods of beetroot variants. RJ+R, PJ+R, SJ+R, OJ+R, RJ, PJ, SJ, OJ, RR, PR, SR, and OR represent raw juice with residue, pressure-cooked juice with residue, steam-cooked juice with residue, open pan-cooked juice with residue, raw juice, pressure-cooked juice, steam-cooked juice, open pan-cooked juice, raw residue, pressure-cooked residue, steam-cooked residue, and open pan-cooked residue.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure4.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6095681/v2/db94c13ede1fa9590e0ff689.jpeg"},{"id":90122915,"identity":"f364f9af-414a-42ed-87de-3ae294214e85","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-28 18:11:51","extension":"jpeg","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":181169,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eFigure 5 represents the optimization of beetroot processing methods and variants. Minimum and Maximum represent the minimized and maximized variables for the optimization process.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure5.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6095681/v2/af0cc1ad25a263a584b5cd00.jpeg"},{"id":105224466,"identity":"657d7f89-2e08-4d36-bcfb-5ddf069df794","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-23 16:14:21","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":4226983,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscriptfinalversion.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6095681/v2_covered_7f0ef855-bbd4-4030-a12d-fd8d31f1580f.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"Competing interest reported. The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Dr Jancirani Ramaswamy reports financial support was provided by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University [ASG2022201]. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.","formattedTitle":"Impact of food processing methods on nutraceutical and anti-nutritional properties of different forms of beetroot: A synergistic approach towards iron deficiency anemia","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Synergy, iron, anemia, beetroot, juice, processing","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6095681/v2","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6095681/v2","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eIron deficiency anemia is a widespread public health issue affecting millions of people. To prevent this condition, the formulation of food with a synergistic approach has a crucial role in micronutrient absorption as it maximizes nutrient bioavailability. In this study, the effect of different food processing methods on different forms of beetroot was evaluated and optimized based on iron absorption. Iron, folate, beta-carotene, ascorbic acid, and saponin were predominantly retained in juice with residue form. Pressure-cooking facilitated the retention of citric acid (95%), especially in the juice with residue and residue forms, while open pan-cooking caused greater degradation of citric acid. Citric and ascorbic acids exhibit strong synergistic activity towards iron absorption hence retention of these acids would enhance iron bioavailability. The antinutrient oxalate decreased after processing, whereas the tannin level increased, except in pressure-cooked juice and juice with residue. Pressure-cooked juice with residue form was found to be best for retaining iron content by around 92% and decreasing antinutrients by around 26-43%. A notable improvement was observed in other nutrients around 52% with retaining nutraceutical properties. Despite reductions in certain compounds such as nitrates, betanin, and vulgaxanthin, the overall nutritional improvements make pressure-cooked juice with residue a highly favorable option for maximizing bioavailability and promoting health benefits, especially in iron deficiency anemia. In most of the clinical trials, beetroot is supplemented in raw juice form to reduce anemia. 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