Abstract
Triterpene acid and phenolic constituents from nine ancient varieties of apple (Malus domestica) fruits cultivated in Fanna, Friuli Venezia Giulia region, northeast Italy, were analyzed and compared with four commercial apples (‘Golden Delicious’, ‘Red Delicious’, ‘Granny Smith’ and ‘Royal Gala’). Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were measured by spectrophotometric assays. The quali-quantitative fingerprint of secondary metabolites including triterpene acid was obtained by LC-DAD-(ESI)-MS and LC-(APCI)-MS, respectively. Based on the two LC-MS datasets, multivariate analysis was used to compare the composition of ancient fruit varieties with those of four commercial apples. Significant differences related mainly to the pattern of triterpene acids were found. Pomolic, euscaphyc, maslinic and ursolic acids are the most abundant triterpene in ancient varieties pulps and peels, while ursolic and oleanolic acids were prevalent in the commercial fruits. Also, the content of the phenolic compounds phloretin-2-O-xyloglucoside and quercetin-3-O-arabinoside was greater in ancient apple varieties. The antioxidant (radical scavenging, reducing power, metal chelating and phosphomolybdenum assays) and enzyme inhibitory effects (against cholinesterase, tyrosinase, amylase and glucosidase) of the samples were investigated in vitro. Antioxidant assays showed that the peels were more active than pulps. However, all the samples exhibited similar enzyme inhibitory effects. Ancient Friuli Venezia Giulia apple cultivars can be a source of chlorogenic acid and various triterpene acids, which are known for their potential anti-inflammatory activity and beneficial effects on lipid and glucose metabolism. Our results make these ancient varieties suitable for the development of new nutraceutical ingredients.
Highlights
The consumption of fruits and vegetables is very important in human nutrition
Health promoting properties of apple fruit are ascribed to the presence of different groups of polyphenol constituents, namely procyanidins, dihydrochalcones, flavonols and hydroxycinnamic acids that are present in the pulp and are mostly concentrated in the peel [3,5,6,7,8,9,10]
Secondary metabolite composition can be different in apple varieties and the amount of such compounds has been reported to be different of several fold
Summary
The consumption of fruits and vegetables is very important in human nutrition. They provide nutrients and non-nutritive constituents with significant biological activities, contributing to a healthy diet, with reduction of disease risk. [1] Scientific evidence showed that a higher consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality [2,3,4]. Apples are one of the most consumed and healthy fruits due to their content of high value nutrients and secondary metabolites. Various attempts were made to optimize the level of healthy compounds in apple fruits through cultivation methods and selection of varieties [2,4,7,8,9,10]
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