Canangucha (Mauritia flexuosa L. f): A potential fruit in the colombian amazon

Abstract

Canangucha is a palm from the Colombian Amazon of great industry interest, due to its expansion and ecosystem and food services it offers to communities. The objective of this work was to evaluate the morphometric, physical, and chemical characteristics, as well as the yield of the canangucha fruit in both EI and EII ecotypes, this characterization can become the starting point for the development of the value chain of the fruit. For the fruits and seeds, the longitudinal diameter (LD), equatorial diameter (ED), mass (g), and color (L*, a*, b*) were determined. The pulp was characterized based on pH, °Brix, moisture content, aw, color, crude protein, total lipids, crude fiber, carbohydrates, minerals, total phenols (TP), antioxidant capacity (ABTS and DPPH methods), α-carotene, β- carotene and α-tocopherol. The fruit mass is comprised 61-65% seed, 15 17% pulp and 19-21% pericarp. The morphometric variables of the fruit and seed of ecotypes I and II showed a significant difference (P<0.05). The color of the fruit presented significant changes based on its ripeness, and the luminosity fluctuated between 26.8%-53.7%; while the pulp presented a yellow-orange hue with a variation in the color plane (a*, b*), being between (11.3, 5.1) and (23.4, 43.5). The EI ecotype pulp presented better quality attributes: total lipids (34.2%), crude fiber (22.2%), crude protein (6.8%), pH: 3.6-4.4, °Brix: 15-16, TP: 1467.3±146.5 mg GAE 100g-1, DPPH: 2.5±0.1 mg TE g-1, ABTS: 3.0±0.2 mg TE g-1, β carotene: 68.2±9.6 mg 100g-1, and 11927.7 µg RAE. It was concluded that canangucha has an important nutritional value and compounds with physiological activity, which identifies it with great potential to be used in the food and pharmaceutical industries.