Antioxidant capacity and bioactive compounds of four Brazilian native fruits

Cristiane C. Denardin ^a,*, Gabriela E. Hirsch ^b, Ricardo F. da Rocha ^a,
M
arcia Vizzotto ^c, Am
elia T. Henriques ^d, Jos
e C.F. Moreira ^a,
F
atima T.C.R. Guma ^a, Tatiana Emanuelli ^b

 

^a Departamento de Bioquı´mica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

^b Nu´ cleo Integrado de Desenvolvimento em An
alises Laboratoriais (NIDAL), Departamento de Tecnologia e Ci^encia de Alimentos, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS, Brazil
^c Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecu
aria de Clima Temperado, Pelotas, RS, Brazil

^d Faculdade de Farm
acia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

 

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of extracts from arac¸
a (Psidium cattleianum), buti
a (Butia eriospatha), and pitanga (Eugenia uniflora) fruits with different flesh colors (i.e., purple, red, and orange), and blackberries (Rubus sp.; cv. Xavante andCherokee) collected in the southernregionof Brazil.Thecontent of ascorbic acid, total carotenoids, and phenolics were determined. The profile of the phenolic
compounds wasassessed by high-performance liquidchromatography combined with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). The antioxidant activity was determined using the ferricreducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, 2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl hydrate (DPPH) assay, total reactive antioxidant potential (TRAP) assay, and total antioxidant reactivity (TAR) assay. The Xavante blackberry and purple-fleshed pitanga showed the highest total phenolic content [816.50 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/100g and 799.80 mg GAE/100g, respectively].
The arac¸
a and red-fleshed pitanga showed the highest carotenoid content (6.27 ug ß-carotene/g and 5.86 ug ß-carotene/g, respectively). The fruits contained several phenolic compounds such as quercetin derivatives, quercitrin, isoquercitrin, and cyanidin derivatives, which may contribute differentially to the antioxidant capacity. The highest scavenging activity in theDPPHassaywasfound for purple-fleshed pitanga (IC₅₀ 36.78 mg/L), blackberries
[IC₅₀ 44.70 (Xavante) and IC₅₀ 78.25 mg/L (Cherokee)], and arac¸
a (IC₅₀ 48.05 mg/L), which also showed the highest FRAP, followed by orange- and red-fleshed pitanga. Our results revealed that some fruits grown in southern Brazil such as purple-fleshed pitanga, blackberries, and arac¸
a are rich sources of phenolic compounds and have great antioxidant activity.

 

Keywords: antioxidant activity, Butia eriospatha, Eugenia uniflora, Psidium cattleianum, Rubus sp.