Post-harvest nutraceutical behaviour during ripening and senescence of 8 highly perishable fruit species from the Northern Brazilian Amazon region

Abstract

The post-harvest nutraceutical characteristics of highly perishable native fruits species from the Northern Brazilian Amazon region were studied during 12day at 15±1°C and 95±3% RH. Uxi and caja fruit showed climacteric behaviour while caju, açai de terra firme, camu-camu, inajá, murici and araçá-boi were non-climacteric. Soluble solids and sugars increased for climacteric fruit while total acidity remained constant for all fruits. In general, all fruit species had high levels of total phenolics (121–9889mgGAE100g−1 dry weight pulp), vitamin C (31–1532mgAA100mL−1 juice) and antioxidant activity (AOX) (75–2881μmolTroloxEq100g−1 dry weight, ORAC value), however, camu-camu, acai and murici were among the highest. All fruits showed an increase in phenolic content (15–82%), a simultaneous decrease in ascorbic acid in both peel (88–98%) and pulp (89–97%), while AOX increased or decreased depending on the fruit species, very likely due to the specific phenolic profile being synthesized. We propose a hypothetical model where ripening/senescence induced a redox homeostasis imbalance which in turn triggered the responses.