Impact of in vitro gastrointestinal digestion on rabbiteye blueberry anthocyanins and their absorption efficiency in Caco-2 cells

Blueberries are rich in anthocyanins, which have numerous nutritional and pharmacological effects. In this study, the absorption and stability of rabbiteye blueberry anthocyanins extract (BAE) were assessed using in vitro digestion and Caco-2 cell monolayers. Overall, similar patterns were found through different phases of simulated in vitro digestion, however, the total anthocyanin content (TAC) of BAE significantly decreased. Among all thirteen anthocyanins from BAE, the highest bioaccessibility of >50% was found in Cyanidin-3-glucoside (Cy-3-glc), Petunidin-3-galactoside, (Pt-3-gal), and Cyanidin-3-arabinoside (Cy-3-ara). However, malvidin glycosides represented around 55% of TAC with 27–35% bioaccessibility. The absorption Caco-2 cell monolayers assay indicated that blueberry anthocyanins with higher hydrophobicity are more efficiently absorbed. In addition, the structure of glycosides impacts the absorption and transport efficiencies of anthocyanins. This study provides data on the stability and absorption of blueberry anthocyanins, that can be used to explore the underlying mechanism of BAE absorption.