Bioactive compounds and in vitro antioxidant activity of pulps from fruits from the Brazilian atlantic forest

Abstract

The fruits belonging to the family Myrtaceae are known sources of compounds with functional characteristics. Nevertheless, the studies are focused only on some species of this family. In this sense, we aimed to quantify the bioactive compounds present in the pulps of cambuci, feijoa, uvaia and grumixama; to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant capacity of each one and to correlate the contribution of these bioactive compounds with the antioxidant activity of each fruit pulp. For this, the compounds ascorbic acid, phenolic compounds, carotenoids, and flavonoids were quantified for the pulps of cambuci, feijoa, uvaia, and grumixama, as well as the in vitro antioxidant capacity by the methods DPPH and ABTS. The results were evaluated by multivariate statistical techniques. The pulps present good antioxidant potential, the one from cambuci presented the highest values for antioxidant activity given by the method DPPH (61.86 µg of Trolox g-1), that from uvaia was prominent by the presence of ascorbic acid (85.40 ascorbic acid 100 g-1) and that from feijoa, by the flavonoid contents (62.45 mg quercetin g-1) and phenolic compounds (10.21 mg gallic acid equivalent g–1). A correlation was observed between pulp antioxidant capacity and the contents of ascorbic acid and carotenoids; on the other hand, the phenolic compounds and flavonoids little contributed for the anti-free radical activity of the methods DPPH and ABTS.