Study of Amino Acid Composition of <i>Prunus Domestica</i> Fruits Pectin Complex

Abstract

Medicines on the basis of herbs are increasingly used for treating of many diseases and provide the following actions laxative, hepatoprotective, membrane stabilizing and antimicrobial. The plant Prunus domestica L., family Rosaceae is widely cultivated worldwide. The recent studies have shown that fruits have antioxidant, anticancer, antihyperglycemic, anti-hyperlipidemic, antihypertensive, antiosteoporosis, laxative and hepatoprotective activities. As raw material plum of Ukrainian variety ‘vengerka’ was taken for the research and pectin complex from plum fruits was obtained. The yield of the pectin from the fresh plum fruits was 8,6% of a dry weight. The analysis of plum pectin was performed by HPLC and spectrophotometry methods. 16 amino acids were identified and their contents were determined. It was found that plum pectin contained essential amino acids such as threonine, valine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, and histidine. The total amount of free and bound amino acids was 33.70 μg/mg, while free amino acids – 1.18 μg/mg. The amount of bound amino acids was 32,52 μg/mg. The content of free amino acids was only 3.50% of the amount of all amino acids found in the pectin complex. L-Aspartic and L-Proline predominated among free amino acids. Among the bound amino acids, L-Aspartic and L-Glutamic acids dominated. The content of the total amount of phenolic compounds calculated with reference to gallic acid in the pectin complex was 0.43%, and the content of hydroxycinnamic acids calculated with reference to chlorogenic acid in this substance was 0.09%.