Application of chemometric techniques in the evaluation of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of fruit from Brazilian cerrado

Abstract

The Brazilian cerrado is the biome with the greatest biodiversity in the world and fruit species-rich in bioactive compounds. Chemometric techniques can potentially group alternatives from natural sources of bioactive compounds reliably and intuitively. Thus, in the present study, the objective was to analyze fruits of 13 cerrado species for the profile of phenolic compounds, total phenolic compounds (TPC), vitamin C and antioxidant activity by six different methods and group them by chemometric techniques. The results confirm that cerrado fruits are important vehicles of vitamin C and TPC, with high antioxidant activity. The Principal Component (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster (HCA) analysis, based on the contents of bioactive compounds and antioxidants in the fruits, allowed the species to be grouped into 6 clusters: (i) gabiroba (Campomanesia pubescens), (ii) bacaba (Oenocarpus bacaba Mart.), (iii) murici (Byrsonima crassiflora L.), mangaba (Hanconia speciosa Gomes) and marolo (Annona crassiflora Mart.), (iv) saborosa (Selenicereus setaceus Rizz.), curriola [Pouteria ramiflora (Mart.) Radlk.], marmelada espinho (Alibertia verrucosa), marmelada bola (Alibertia edulis) and araçá-boi (Eugenia stipitata Mc. Vaugh), (v) pequi (Caryocar brasiliense Camb.) and (vi) yellow puçá (Mouriri elliptica Mart.) and black puçá (Mouriri pusa Gardner). It is concluded that gabiroba, mangaba, and marolo stand out for their greater antioxidant potential and that chemometric techniques were effective in grouping the cerrado fruits according to TPC, vitamin C, and antioxidant activities, thus showing that the inclusion of these fruits in the daily diet as a source of bioactive compounds is viable.