Amazonian Native Palm Fruits as Sources of Antioxidant Bioactive Compounds.

Mary Dos Santos,Edy De Brito,Rosa Mamede,Maria Rufino,Ricardo Alves

doi:10.3390/antiox4030591

Abstract

The Amazon region has many sources of fruits, especially native ones not yet explored, but which have some potential for use, as is the case with certain palms. The objective of this study was to evaluate the content of bioactive compounds and total antioxidant capacities of fruits from native palms from the Brazilian Amazon. The fruits of five palm species (bacaba, buriti, inajá, pupunha, and tucumã) were evaluated for levels of ascorbic acid, anthocyanins, yellow flavonoids, total carotenoids, and total extractable polyphenols, as well as the total antioxidant capacities. The fruits had high contents of extractable total polyphenols, especially bacaba and tucumã (941.56 and 158.98 mg of galic acid·100g−1), total carotenoids in the case of tucumã and buriti (7.24 and 4.67 mg·100g−1), and anthocyanins in bacaba (80.76 mg·100g−1). As for the antioxidant capacity, bacaba had the highest total antioxidant activity by the Oxygen Radical Antioxidant Capacity (ORAC) (194.67 µM·Trolox·g−1), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (47.46 g·pulp·g−1 DPPH), and β-carotene/linoleic acid (92.17% Oxidation Inhibition (O.I) methods. Bacaba phenolic profile revealed the presence of cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside and other flavonoids. The palm fruits studied can be considered good sources of bioactive compounds, some containing higher amounts than that of commonly consumed fruits. Total extractable polyphenols and anthocyanins were directly correlated to antioxidant activity in these fruits.

Highlights

Fruits have chemical compounds that play important biological roles
According to [2], fruits are known as functional foods; besides providing nutrition for the proper functioning of organisms, their value is associated with substances that have protective properties, in most cases due to their antioxidant activity
The results obtained for Vitamin C, total anthocyanins, yellow flavonoids, and total carotenoids are presented in Table 3 along with the percentage of moisture

Summary

Introduction

Fruits have chemical compounds that play important biological roles. These, called bioactive or phytochemical compounds, are usually found in small amounts in foods, especially plants, and may have different beneficial ways of acting on human health [1]. According to [2], fruits are known as functional foods; besides providing nutrition for the proper functioning of organisms, their value is associated with substances that have protective properties, in most cases due to their antioxidant activity. Among these substances, the polyphenols—carotenoids, ascorbic acid, phytosterols, etc.—. Due to their antioxidant properties, these compounds slow down the oxidant reactions, protecting the organism against reactive oxygen species [3]. The search for foods that are good sources of natural antioxidants has been driving studies to evaluate compounds present in plant species that could be related to antioxidant activity [4]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion