Contents of Phenolics and Flavonoids and Antioxidant Activities in Skin, Pulp, and Seeds of Miracle Fruit

Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulificum) has been studied because of its unique taste modifying properties. This study investigated contents of phenolics, flavonoids, and antioxidant activities in skin, pulp, and seeds of Miracle Fruit. The free phenolic content in skin was almost 3 times of that in pulp and 4 times of that in seeds. Skin contributed 43.96% of free phenolic compounds with 15.91% of freeze-dried solids due to its high phenolic content. As the trend observed for phenolic content, the free flavonoid content in the skin was tremendously higher than that in the seed and pulp. The skin contributed about 52% of total flavonoid with 15.91% of dried solids. On other hand, the differences in the bound phenolic contents were not so distinct among the 3 components. The free antioxidant activities in skin and pulp were comparable, and were significantly higher than that in seeds. Although the antioxidant activities in seeds was considerably lower than that in skin, 49.45% free antioxidant activity, 76.41% bound antioxidant activity, and 58.56% of total antioxidant activity were contributed by seeds due to about 66% of solid of total solids. In general, the results of antioxidant activities using sequential methods were higher than that using direct method. This study suggests that Miracle Fruit is a good source not only for flavor and color, and also antioxidant activity for functional food applications.