Morphological and physical characterization of the fruit: chemical, antioxidant and functional evaluation of guasmole (Renealmia alpinia) flours

The objective of this research was the morphological and physical characterization of the guasmole fruit (Renealmia alpinia) and the chemical, functional, and antioxidant evaluation of three flours [integral flour (IF), seed flour, and peel flour (PF)]. The morphology of the whole fruit was 30.95 mm long, 23.94 mm wide, and had an individual weight of 10.18 g. In the case of the pulp, it had a length of 26.07 mm, a width of 14.78 mm, and a weight was 2.93 g. The shell had a thickness of 3.37 mm and a weight of 7.10 g. The L* parameters in the flours were 58.23 in seed flour (SF), 55.95 in PF and 51.09 in IF, on the other hand, the values of a* and b* of the evaluated flours showed positive values with a tendency towards reddening and yellowing respectively. The C* values showed that the PF had a higher color saturation. The protein content of integral, seed, and PF was 9.41, 7.14 and 5.62% respectively. While the fat content of IF was the one with the highest content (18.95%). The IF was the one that presented the highest antioxidant activity by the DPPH method with a value of IC50 = 0.95 mg/mL and by the ABTS method it was the seed flour with an IC50 = 1.38 mg/mL. The three flours showed an increase in the water absorption capacity as the temperature increased, the highest oil absorption capacity was presented by the IF with a value of 6.95 g of oil/g of sample. The solubility capacity in water of PF at 90 °C was the one with the highest value at 13.76%. According to the results obtained, it can be concluded that guasmole flours can be used as ingredients for the design and development of new food products.