Carotenoids, chlorophylls, vitamin E and amino acid profile in fruits of nineteen Chaenomeles cultivars

Abstract

This study aimed to identify and quantify carotenoids, chlorophylls, tocopherols, tocotrienols and the free amino acid profile of 19 fruit cultivars of Chaenomeles × superba, Chaenomeles japonica, and Chaenomeles speciosa. For this purpose ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) with a photodiode array (PDA) and fluorescence (FL) detector coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (QToF–ESI–MS) was used. Most of the Chaenomeles species and cultivars analyzed in this study have not been examined in this respect until now. Fruits contained 32.44–314.94 mg of carotenoids, 19.27–227.19 mg of chlorophylls, 5.51–37.58 mg of tocopherols, and 2.06–42.30 mg of tocotrienols per kg of dry weight (dw). Analysis of the amino acid profile revealed the presence of 10 amino acids, three of them essential (l-threonine, l-valine and l-isoleucine). The highest content of total amino acids was shown by C. × superba ˈJet Trailˈ (2326.33 mg/100 g dw). Among tested species, C. speciosa was characterized by the highest content of all analyzed compounds, except for chlorophylls, present in the highest concentration in C. × superba fruits. These results indicate that Chaenomeles fruits could be regarded as a promising source of bioactive functional food containing vitamins A and E and indispensable amino acids.