The ripe pulp of Mangifera indica L.: A rich source of phytosterols and other lipophilic phytochemicals

Carla Vilela,Sónia A.O Santos,Lúcia Oliveira,João F Camacho,Nereida Cordeiro,Carmen S.R Freire,Armando J.D Silvestre

doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2013.09.017

Abstract

The chemical composition of the lipophilic extracts of the ripe pulp of mangoes from twelve cultivars of Mangifera indica L. from Madeira Island was investigated by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) for the first time. The ripe pulp of these mango cultivars showed analogous amounts of lipophilic extractives, as well as similar qualitative chemical compositions. The predominant compounds were free and glycosylated sterols and fatty acids, representing 44.8–70.7% and 22.6–41.9%, respectively, of the total amount of lipophilic components. Smaller amounts of long chain aliphatic alcohols and α-tocopherol were also identified. These data indicate that the investigated mango cultivars are a rich source of valuable phytochemicals, contributing to the intake of at least 9.5–38.2mg of phytosterols (free and glycosylated) and 0.7–3.9mg of fatty acids (ω−3 and ω−6) per 100g of fresh mango, with recognizable beneficial effects on human nutrition and health.

Highlights

The mango fruit, one of the most important tropical fruits in the world, enjoys the status of “the king of fruits” as a result of its unique flavor, fragrance and appearance (Singh, Singh, Sane, & Nath, 2013)
Mango fruits (M. indica L.) without evidence of physical or pathological injuries were selected from Centro de Fruticultura Subtropical do Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal (32° 38′ 52′′ N, 16° 57′ 44′′ W)
Total soluble solids (TSS) determination expressed as °Brix, is usually used as an estimation of the sugar content of fruit

Summary

Introduction

The mango fruit, one of the most important tropical fruits in the world, enjoys the status of “the king of fruits” as a result of its unique flavor, fragrance and appearance (Singh, Singh, Sane, & Nath, 2013). The Mangifera indica L. species, belonging to the Mangifera genus, Anacardiaceae family and Sapindales order, is the most important edible species and its fruit shows a pronounced diversity in size, shape, color, flavor, seed size, and chemical composition (Stafford, 1983), depending on the cultivar (Othman & Mbogo, 2009), edaphoclimatic conditions (Léchaudel & Joas, 2006) and postharvest storage (Nunes, Emond, Brecht, Dea, & Proulx, 2007). 41.8%, and is expected to increase even more due to the growing consumption of fresh fruit and processed products. The annual world production accounted in 2011 for ca. 38 million tonnes, with India as the major producer (15 million tonnes), Mexico and India as the major

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