Research Article Castanea sativa Mill. Flowers amongst the Most Powerful Antioxidant Matrices: A Phytochemical Approach in Decoctions and Infusions Márcio Carocho, 1,2 Lillian Barros, 1 Albino Bento, 1 Celestino Santos-Buelga, 3 Patricia Morales, 2 and Isabel C. F. R. Ferreira 1 1 Mountain Research Center (CIMO), ESA, Polytechnic Institute of Braganc ¸a, Campus de Santa Apol´ onia 1172, 5301-855 Braganc ¸a, Portugal 2 Department of Nutrition and Bromatology II, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University of Madrid, Pza Ram´ on y Cajal, s/n., 28040 Madrid, Spain 3 Grupo de Investigaci´ on en Polifenoles (GIP), Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Salamanca, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, 37007 Salamanca, Spain Correspondence should be addressed to Isabel C. F. R. Ferreira; iferreira@ipb.pt Received 20 February 2014; Accepted 28 March 2014; Published 14 April 2014 Academic Editor: P. J. Oefner Copyright © 2014 M´ arcio Carocho et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Infusions and decoction of chestnut tree lowers have been used for diferent medical purposes, but their phytochemical proile and antioxidant activity are still mostly unknown. Herein, decoctions and infusions of lowers from the two most appreciated chestnut cultivars (longal and judia) in Tr´ as-os-Montes, Portugal, were prepared and characterized with regard to their content in free sugars, organic acids, and phenolic compounds, such as lavonoids and hydrolyzable tannins, and their antioxidant activity. Overall, the decoction of the cultivar judia was the sample with both the highest quantity of lavonoids and antioxidant activity. he phenolic compound with the highest abundance in all samples was trigalloyl-HHDP-glucoside, followed by pentagalloyl glucoside. he sample with the highest quantity of total phenolic compounds was judia infusion, closely followed by longal decoction, which also gave the highest quantities of ellagitannins. Regarding sugars and organic acids, the proiles were more similar. hese results corroborate ancestral claims of the health beneits of infusions and decoctions of chestnut lowers. 1. Introduction In the Tr´ as-os-Montes region of Portugal and across a good part of the Mediterranean countries, chestnut trees are a considerable part of the landscape. hese trees and their respective nuts have been important in the past and are still a source of income for those regions. In Portugal, chestnuts are almost totally exported, translating into a revenue of 32 million euros in 2012 [1, 2]. he chestnut tree has a variety of applications; the nuts are used for human and animal feed, being widely appreciated and even transformed into many typical dishes and desserts. he wood is used for high class furniture. he leaves are used in many ethnobotanic formu- lations against colds, coughs, diarrhea, and even high blood cholesterol [3]. Furthermore, some patents indicate the use of chestnut lowers in beverages like teas and refreshments [4– 6]. he nutritional and bioactive properties of the fruits and lowers of chestnuts have been reported [7–9]. Barros et al. [8, 9] described the high antioxidant potential and phenolic compounds proile of methanolic extracts obtained from the lowers. In fact, some of the most antioxidant molecules are not always found in fruits, but in richer polyphenolic matri- ces like lowers. Other antioxidant molecules include some organic acids that among many other beneicial activities are known to act against free radicals [8, 10]. he characterization of antioxidant molecules present in lowers is fundamental to draw conclusions concerning their antioxidant potential, which could be interesting for the food industry, by adding antioxidant extracts to foodstufs or using Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2014, Article ID 232956, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/232956