Caracterização do potencial de bioativos presentes na casca e semente do bacupari (Garcinia brasiliensis)

Abstract

The Amazon Region displays a variety of eccentric fruit species, still little known, which contain bioactive compounds that are used to benefit society. Bacupari (Garcinia brasiliensis) is a fruit native to the Amazon region and grows throughout the national territory and in South American countries. The fruit is part of the eating habits, especially of the northern population, during its seasonality, which highlights the fact that there are no production data available. Given the scarcity of application of this fruit in food, as well as scientific information, the objective was to carry out the physical-chemical characterization and antioxidant activity of flours and extracts obtained from by-products (skin and seeds) of the fruit. To this end, the Folin-Ciocalteau reduction capacity and DPPH radical reduction methods were carried out to determine the antioxidant activity, phenolic compounds and polyphenols. For the physical-chemical analyses, the proximal composition was carried out, identification of minerals by XRF, total and reducing sugars and volatile compounds using GC/MS of the fruit peel and seed flours. Cytotoxicity tests against cancerous strains were carried out using the AlamarBlue method. The results demonstrated good antioxidant activity of the extracts obtained by different extraction solvents, mainly for ethanol, hexane and methanol for the seed byproduct, varying between 93.710.17% to 90.720.6%. Furthermore, the physicochemical characteristics of the flours were promising regarding the presence of important minerals in the human diet (Ca and K), total sugars (shell - 18.890.27 mg.g-1 and seed - 8.381.0 mg.g-1) and a significant percentage of lipids, proteins and carbohydrates. Regarding the results of cytotoxic activity, the extracts that showed the best anticancer potential were ethanol, hexane and methanol seed extracts, with IC50 between 14.70.31(g/mL) and 15.170.81 (g/mL) for certain cell lines. Through the study of volatile compounds by GC-MS of flours, it was possible to identify 45 substances belonging to the classes of alcohols, carboxylic acids, terpenes and ketones, and classify them according to their odor. In this way, it is possible to infer that the peel and seed have potential in the pharmaceutical and food industry to obtain new products. As well as the use of fruit extracts, they must be subjected to further investigations regarding in vivo antioxidant activity and mechanisms related to verifying their possible usefulness as a source of active principles to be applied in the prevention and treatment of diseases whose pathophysiology is related to oxidative stress.