Carolina Rojas-Garbanzo, B F Zimermann and A Schieber
University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica Institute of Nutritional and Food Sciences-University of Bonn, DE
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Trends in Green chem
Recently, tropical fruits have experienced increasing popularity, mainly due to their attractive sensory and putative health properties. These fruits are basically consumed in the country of origin, but many of them are nowadays consumed in North America and Europe. The positive effects on health are attributed to phytochemiclas such as vitamins and secondary plant metabolites. Moreover, knowledge of the profile of phytochemicals is useful for chemotaxonomic purposes. In particular, phenolic compounds have been employed in the classification of plants. Myrtaceae family is well known for the presence of phytochemiclas in species such as Psidium guajava and Psidium friedrichsthalianum, which are popular, used for the traetment of diarrhea, diabetes, and as cicatrizant. Studies focusing on the identification of phytochemicals in these fruits reported the presence of polyphenols, triterpenoids, and carotenoids. Non-polar and polar pigments of Psidium fruits can be characterized (carotenoids, polyphenols, and triterpenoids) by using Using HPLC-DAD (U), and APCI-MS/MS or ESI-MS/MS analysis. Among non-polar pigments, chlorophylls, xanthophylls, and carotenes can be distinguished and identified. Regarding polar secondary metabolites, many groups can characterize according to their chemical family. Some examples are ellagitannins, gallotannins, hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives, stilbenes, flavanones, flavonols, flavanols, proanthocyanidins, flavanolignans, biflavonoids, dihydrochalcones, and triterpenoids, many of them reported for the first time in the genus Psidium. Some compounds indicated a chemotaxonomic relation within fruits of the genus Psidium and other fruits of the Myrtaceae family, e.g, ellagitannins. Of special interest is the presence of some dihydrochalcones which have been considered exclusive of the genus Malus. The use of chromatographic and mass spectrometric assaays allowed recognizing Psidium fruits as promising sources of phytochemicals with putative positive effects on health and helps extending the knowledge about fruits rich in phytochemicals and their further possible use in the development of functional foods or nutraceuticals.
E-mail:
carolina.rojasgarbanzo@ucr.ac.cr
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