Abstract
In South America, the mesocarp flour of Prosopis species plays a prominent role as a food resource in arid areas. The aim of this work was the characterization of the phenolic antioxidants occurring in the pod mesocarp flour of Chilean Prosopis. Samples were collected in the Copiapo, Huasco and Elqui valleys from the north of Chile. The samples of P. chilensis flour exhibited a total phenolic content ranging between 0.82–2.57 g gallic acid equivalents/100 g fresh flour weight. The highest antioxidant activity, measured by the DPPH assay, was observed for samples from the Huasco valley. HPLC-MS/MS analysis allowed the tentative identification of eight anthocyanins and 13 phenolic compounds including flavonol glycosides, C-glycosyl flavones and ellagic acid derivatives. The antioxidant activity and the phenolic composition in the flour suggest that this ancient South American resource may have potential as a functional food.
Highlights
Worldwide climate change and the long-lasting drought in northern Chile suggest that attention should be paid to native species that are adapted to arid environments
We report the naturally occurring phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of Chilean Prosopis pods mesocarp flour
The phenolic composition and antioxidant properties of the Chilean Prosopis mesocarp flour supports its use as a functional food
Summary
Worldwide climate change and the long-lasting drought in northern Chile suggest that attention should be paid to native species that are adapted to arid environments. In arid and semi-arid lands, pods of the trees belonging to genus Prosopis, locally known as “algarrobo” in South America, are relevant food sources [1]. They were gathered by all the pre-Columbian human groups, including those living in the south of United States of America [2], Amerindians in the Paraguayan Chaco [3,4], Argentina [5], and Chile [6,7]. The pod flour is used to prepare a kind of bread, known as “patay” in Argentina [9] or is fermented into various alcoholic beverages
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