Physico-chemical properties, antioxidant activity and bioactive compounds in edible and non-edible portions of dragon fruit cultivars native to Bangladesh

Abstract

The research was conducted to assess the variability and relationship regarding physicochemical properties, antioxidant activity and bioactive compounds in edible and nonedible portions (peel, flesh and seed) of dragon fruit cultivars native to Bangladesh. The most popular and largely cultivated Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) released BARI Dragon Fruit-1 and Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) released BAU Dragon Fruit-1 cultivars were chosen in the study. The experiment was conducted in two factors completely randomized design where two cultivars and, three edible and nonedible portions were considered as treatments. The findings of the investigation revealed that there was a large discrepancy in the average weight in the selected cultivars where BAU Dragon Fruit-1 was found to be superior (347 g) to BARI Dragon Fruit-1 (284 g). These cultivars contained 31.86% to 35.44% peel, 59.74% to 65.08% flesh and 3.06% to 4.82% seed in their edible and non-edible portions. The BAU Dragon Fruit-1 provided a good recovery rate with the highest flesh to peel ratio (2.04:1). The highest amount of total soluble solids (10.20°Brix) was obtained in the flesh portion of BARI Dragon Fruit1. The utmost quantities of ascorbic acid were found in the seeds of each cultivar, ranging from 24.40 to 31.41 mg/100 g. The BARI Dragon Fruit-1 cultivar’s seed contained the highest tannin (444.64 mg TAE/100 g), whereas the flesh of the same cultivar had the lowest (335.04 mg TAE/100 g). In comparison, the phenolic content of BAU Dragon Fruit -1 cultivar's seed and flesh ranged from 162.86 to 163.13 mg GAE/100 g. The highest antioxidant activity (91.35%) was found in the seed portion of BARI Dragon Fruit-1. According to the findings, the edible and non-edible portions of Bangladesh's native dragon fruit cultivars have particular features, which will help in diverse food and pharmaceuticals product formulation and development.