Brazilian Cerrado fruit araticum (Annona crassiflora Mart.) as a potential source of natural antioxidant compounds

Araticum is an underutilized Brazilian Cerrado fruit with few reports in the literature about its bioactive compounds and functional properties. This study aimed to determine the amount of total phenolic compounds, total flavonoids and antioxidant activity of araticum pulp. Total phenolic compounds and total flavonoids were determined spectrophotometrically using the Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminium chloride colorimetric assays. respectively. In addition, antioxidant activity from araticum fruit was measured by DPPH, TEAC and ORAC(FL) assays. The araticum pulp showed high amount of total phenolic compounds (2.62 g GAE/100 g dw) and total flavonoids (1.79 g CE/100 g dw). Flavonoids were the predominant class of phenolic compounds. representing about 68% of the phenolic compounds content. Furthermore, the fruit showed high antioxidant activity for all assays performed (93.76 mu g/mL, 231.79 mu mol TE/g and 902.27 mu mol TE/g for DPPH IC50. TEAC and T-ORAC(FL), respectively). Quercetin showed the most potent antioxidant activity in DPPH center dot and ABTS(center dot+) radical scavenging capacities, whereas the kaempferol was the compound with the highest scavenging capacity peroxyl radicals. Araticum fruit showed phenolic compounds content and antioxidant activity hardly found in common fruits. These results indicate that araticum is a potential source of bioactive compounds. (C) All Rights Reserved