PRELIMINARY STUDIES ON TOCOSH FLOUR (SOLANUM TUBEROSUM L.) PROPERTIES FOR POTENTIAL PHARMACEUTICAL AND COSMETIC APPLICATIONS

In Latin American tradition, food fermentation represented during centuries an efficient strategy to preserve native crops to maintain adequate stocks for survival. In particular, tocosh flour is an ancestral fermented product still prepared in small communities from the highlands of Central Peruvian Andes through a long potato fermentation procedure.1 The obtained product is kept for consumption, as a sun-dried and ground fine flour-type product with nutritional and curative properties. It is considered “the natural penicillin of the Andes” with a unique set of therapeutic properties useful for gastrointestinal, respiratory and urinary deseases, skin care and hair loss. The chemical composition of tocosh, derived from potato fermentation, demonstrates a similar composition to , disclosing the presence of carbohydrates (mainly starch, 80%), proteins (3-4%) and small amounts of fatty acids, alkaloids, free amino acids, minerals and thiamine and riboflavin, among other vitamins2-3. From a microbiological point of view, tocosh result from microbial fermentation mainly by lactobacilli, that seem to be the responsible for its large diversity of medicinal properties. It is considered an effective and low-cost antibiotic, energizer, and probiotic useful for gastrointestinal, respiratory and urinary diseases, loss of hair and skin care. Taking into account all these statements, the aim of the research was to investigate tocosh as a new potential pharmaceutical and cosmetic multifunctional ingredient with rheological, antioxidant and preservation properties. The fermented flour has been investigated in terms of amylose content, gelling behaviour in comparison to potato starch, polyphenolic amount, radical scavenging activity and antimicrobial properties.