Abstract
Malpighia emarginata D.C is an important crop of Brazil and significant source of antioxidant active compounds with notable health effects. The purpose of this work was to study three varieties of acerola (Malpighia emarginata D.C) at green unripe stage of maturity from the São Francisco Valley of Northeast Brazil. The fruits were evaluated for physico-chemical composition, bioactive compounds, through spectrophotometric analysis and liquid chromatography, as well as the profile of macro and micro minerals and antioxidant capacity. The fruits presented satisfactory results in physico-chemical quality parameters. HPLC-DAD phenolic profile analysis identified kaempferol-3-glucoside (32.68 mg/100 g), p-coumaric acid (28.87 mg/100 g) and isorhamnetin (11.41 mg/100 g) as the major compounds, mainly in the variety of Flor Branca (FB). The results obtained from the profiles of sugars and organic acids were similar among the varieties. The minerals were excellent sources of the elements of K, Ca, Mg and Mn. Moreover, FB variety represents higher antioxidant capacity in ABTS·+ (8613.54 μM Trolox/g) and ORAC (2454.42 μM Trolox/g). Thus, the results show the potential to be applied for variety selection and utilization programs based on their specific nutritive characters, contributing to the development of new products.
Highlights
Brazil is known as one of the three main countries in the world where a large production of fruits are cultivated
Scientific evidences suggest that consumption of fruits is associated with the prevention of oxidative stress related disorders since fruits are the source of important bioactive compounds (Amarowicz & Shahidi, 2017)
Acerola, pertaining to the family Malpighiaceae, has received considerable attention in recent years because of its excellent nutrients such as ascorbic acid, anthocyanins and other phytochemicals present both in the pulp of the fruit and in the by-products of acerola which contribute to antioxidant capacity (Rezende et al, 2017; Carneiro et al, 2020; Betta et al, 2018)
Summary
Brazil is known as one of the three main countries in the world where a large production of fruits are cultivated. The region of the São Francisco Valley (SFV), situated in the Northeast Brazil is one of the main production areas of the country (Batista et al, 2018). Scientific evidences suggest that consumption of fruits is associated with the prevention of oxidative stress related disorders since fruits are the source of important bioactive compounds (Amarowicz & Shahidi, 2017) This justifies the search and elucidation of novel plant fruits with bioactive properties, which can be used as an alternative agent for synthetic drugs, which contain health risk factors and high toxicity. In vivo biological studies report that acerola extracts have several beneficial effects (Belwal et al, 2018)
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