Mauritia flexuosa L. f. is a palm tree of great social and economic relevance in the Peruvian Amazon, because its fruit presents a high demand for its nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and nutritional properties. This palm presents great morphological variability (morphotypes), represented mainly by the mesocarp color of its fruits. The objective of the study was to characterize the physicochemical and antioxidant properties of the Mauritia flexuosa L. f. mortotypes of greater economic importance in the Peruvian Amazon. Three Mauritia flexuosa L. f. morphotypes classified by the color of the mesocarp: "Yellow" (yellow mesocarp), "Colour" (mesocarp red on the outside and yellow on the inside) and "Shambo" (red mesocarp); were collected in the Amazon River Basin, Iquitos, Peru (4° 39' 19.5" S, 73° 49' 27.9" W). After extraction with supercritical fluids (SFE), defatted flour was obtained, which was then extracted sequentially with methanol (50% v/v) and acetone (70% v/v). The content of total phenolic compounds and flavonoids was determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method and aluminum chloride colorimetric method, respectively. Total carotenoids and antioxidant activity were evaluated using the AOAC method and DPPH assay, respectively. Statistical analysis of the experimental data were carried out using ANOVA followed by Tukey test (P&lt;0.05). Correlation between the different variables were conducted using the Pearson’s method. According to our results, "Shambo" presented a higher antioxidant activity and total carotenoids content compared with the “Yellow” and “Colour” morphotypes (P&lt;0.05, Table 1). Pearson correlation coefficient of total phenolic, flavonoid, and carotenoid content of Mauritia flexuosa L. f. extract with IC50 of DPPH was r=-0.974 (P&lt;0.01). Our results suggest that the carotenoid compounds in extracts of Mauritia flexuosa L. f. were important contributors in their capacity antioxidant with the DPPH method, being “Shambo”, the morphotype that presented the greatest nutraceutical and antioxidant potencial.

Variability of bioactive compounds and antioxidant capacity of three morphotypes of Mauritia flexuosa L. f. from the Amazon region of Peru

2019 Fall National Meeting

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