Abstract
A total of fourteen (14) species of wild edible fruits from Burkina Faso were analyzed for their phenolic and flavonoid contents, and their antioxidant activities using the DPPH, FRAP and ABTS methods. The data obtained show that the total phenolic and total flavonoid levels were significantly higher in the acetone than in the methanol extracts. Detarium microcarpum fruit had the highest phenolic and the highest flavonoid content, followed by that of Adansonia digitata, Ziziphus mauritiana, Ximenia americana and Lannea microcarpa. Significant amounts of total phenolics were also detected in the other fruit species in the following order of decreasing levels: Tamarindus indica > Sclerocarya birrea > Dialium guineense > Gardenia erubescens > Diospyros mespiliformis > Parkia biglobosa > Ficus sycomorus > Vitellaria paradoxa. Detarium microcarpum fruit also showed the highest antioxidant activity using the three antioxidant assays. Fruits with high antioxidant activities were also found to possess high phenolic and flavonoid contents. There was a strong correlation between total phenolic and flavonoid levels and antioxidant activities.
Highlights
Wild edible plants contribute significantly to the nutrition of rural West African inhabitants [1]
While no significant difference was observed between phenolics values of the two extracts from X. americana fruit, we found that the total phenolics of the acetone extract were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those of methanolic extracts in all the other fruits except in shea tree fruit (V. paradoxa) where the MeOH extract (381.67 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/100 g) shows more phenolics than the acetone one (231.35 mg GAE/100 g)
The following decrease order was obtained with acetone extracts: D. microcarpum > X. americana > Z. mauritiana > A. digitata > P. biglobosa > D. guineense > T. indica > L. microcarpa > S. birrea > G. erubenscens > S seneglensis > F. sycomorus > V. paradoxa > D. mespiliformis
Summary
Wild edible plants contribute significantly to the nutrition of rural West African inhabitants [1]. Among these fourteen well known wild edible fruits from Burkina Faso, only A. digitata [7], Z. mauritiana [8], S. birrea [9,10], T. indica [11,12,13] and D. microcarpum [14], have been studied for their phytochemical contents and/or biological activities. The highest phenolics content was measured in D. microcarpum fruit (5978.33 mg/100 g of fw, acetone extract) followed by that of A. digitata, Z. mauritiana, X. americana, L. microcarpa and S. senegalensis (4072.5, 3240.83, 2086.67, 1005.75 and 945.83 mg/100 g of fw with acetone extracts, respectively).
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