Potencial antioxidante de treze frutos de espécies de ocorrência no cerrado por diferentes metodologias

Abstract

The fruits of the Cerrado have been gaining ground in the national and international market because they are potential sources of antioxidant. Currently, many techniques have been proposed to evaluate the antioxidant activity of the fruits, in vitro. Due to the chemical complexity of fruit extracts, composed of compounds with different functional groups, polarity and chemical behavior, it is recommended to adopt more than one test to determine the antioxidant activity. Thus, the objective of this work was to characterize in detail the antioxidant potential of the fruits of the Cerrado, using different methodologies. This study used 13 fruits of the Cerrado brasileiro: araçá-boi, bacaba, curriola, gabiroba, mangaba, marmelada bola, marmelada espinho, marolo, murici, peki, yellow puça, black puça and saborosa. The antioxidant activity of these fruits was determined using 6 different methods: DPPH, ABTS, β-carotene / linoleic acid, TBARS, Reducer Power and Fosfomolybdenum Method. The contents of phenol compounds and vitamin C were determined, as well as the identification and quantification of the 12 phenolic compounds. The analysis showed that the fruits of the Cerrado are important vehicles of vitamin C and phenolic compounds. The gabiroba highlighted, displaying the highest levels of total phenolics and vitamin C, as well as antioxidant activity for most methods. The methods could be grouped according to similar principles in its assessment of antioxidant activity, forming the following groups: DPPH and ABTS, β-carotene / linoleic acid and TBARS, Reducing Power and Fosfomolybdenum Method. Antioxidants methods revealed gabiroba, mangaba and marolo as the fruits with the highest potential to inhibit the action of free radicals.