Carotenoid and phenolic compound profiles of cooked pulps of orange and yellow peach palm fruits (Bactris gasipaes) from the Brazilian Amazonia

Abstract

Peach palm fruits are native from the Amazonia biome and available as different varieties with distinct colour of the fruit peel. Although peach palm fruits have been known to exhibit high bioactive compound content, the carotenoid profile of some varieties, but not all, was reported, while the phenolic compounds of all varieties remain unknown until now. In our study, the carotenoid and phenolic compound profiles were scrutinized for the first time in cooked pulps of orange and yellow peach palm fruits by HPLC-DAD-MS. The major carotenoid in pulps of both orange and yellow peach palm fruits was β-carotene (20% and 24%, respectively), and lutein accounted for 14% in the yellow variety, which may explain the colour difference between the fruits. Both pulps of peach palm fruits presented the same phenolic compounds profile, mostly composed by di-C-glycosyl flavones, with schaftoside the major compound in yellow (45%) and orange (32%) varieties, while vicenin-2 was detected at high relative concentration (21%) in the pulp of orange peach palm fruits, in contrast to 6% found in the yellow fruits. Therefore, orange and yellow peach palm fruits exhibited a promising composition of bioactive compounds for the research and development of high-quality derived food products with claimed health benefits.