Studies of the variability of sugars, vitamin C, and chlorophylls in differently fermented organic leaves of willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium (L.) Holub)

There is currently an increasing interest in functional foods and herbs as an opportunity to enrich one’s diet and at the same time improve one’s health. One of such plants is willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium (L.) Holub), which is rich not only in polyphenols, carotenoids, but also in sugars, chlorophylls, and vitamin C. This work purpose was to determine the effect of solid-phase fermentation (SPF) on changes in sugars, chlorophylls, and vitamin C under different fermentation conditions. Willowherb leaves were fermented for various durations (24, 48, and 72 h), in anaerobic and aerobic terms. The determination of sugars, chlorophylls, and vitamin C was done using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to a spectrometer UV-VIS. The principal component analysis (PCA) was done to estimate the relationships between the different fermentation conditions (methods, as well as duration) and 10 parameters. The study showed: the biggest amounts of total chlorophylls and sugars were present after 72 h of anaerobic SPF, but the amount of total vitamin C was higher in unfermented willowherb leaves. In summary, SPF could be applied to modify chlorophylls and sugar quantities in willowherb organic leaves.