Abstract
Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujuba), a medicinal and edible plant, is widely consumed in Asian countries owing to the remarkable health activities of its fruits. To facilitate selection of the suitable processing method for jujube fruits, in this study their contents of triterpenic acids, nucleosides, nucleobases and saccharides after drying and steaming treatment were determined using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography coupled with evaporative light scattering detector methods. The results showed that except for sucrose, the content levels of most analytes were increasing in the jujube fruits during drying treatment at 45 °C. The levels of cyclic nucleotides such as adenosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate and guanosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate, were significantly decreased after the fruits were steamed. Therefore, owing to the bioactivities of these components for human health, the dried fruits would be the better choice as medicinal material or functional food, and dried jujube fruit should not be further steamed.
Highlights
Ziziphus jujuba Mill. is indigenous to China and widely distributed in the temperate and subtropical areas of the northern hemisphere, especially the inland region of north China [1,2]
Besides these components, little information could be found about the effect of drying treatments on other types of compounds such as nucleosides, nucleobases and triterpenic acids contained in jujube fruits
All of the statistical differences were carried out at a significance level of α = 0.05. This is the first report to investigate the variations of the contents of triterpenic acids, nucleosides and nucleobases, and saccharides in jujube fruits during the drying and steaming treatment
Summary
Ziziphus jujuba Mill. is indigenous to China and widely distributed in the temperate and subtropical areas of the northern hemisphere, especially the inland region of north China [1,2]. The results showed that the above constituents varied widely after being dried with different methods, which could provide the data for the selection of the most suitable drying method for jujube fruits Besides these components, little information could be found about the effect of drying treatments on other types of compounds such as nucleosides, nucleobases and triterpenic acids contained in jujube fruits. To investigate the content variation and the change trends of the above three types of compounds in jujube fruits during drying or steaming treatment, would be helpful to evaluate their nutritional and bioactive values, and provide beneficial information for consumers to select the most suitable product. To facilitate selection of a suitable jujube fruit processing method for providing optimum benefits as a health food and crude drug, in the study, triterpenic acids, nucleosides and nucleobases as well as saccharides (Figure 1) were determined in jujube fruits after drying for different times or after being steamed and their contents were compared using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) and high performance liquid chromatography coupled with evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC-ELSD)
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