Phytochemical Compounds and Antioxidant Activity of the Pulp of Two Brazilian Passion Fruit Species: Passiflora Cincinnata Mast. And Passiflora Edulis Sims

ABSTRACT

About 600 species of Passiflora are described around the world, of which 120 are native to Brazil. In the present work, the phytochemical compounds were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography, and the antioxidant activities (AOX) were measured in the pulp of P. edulis and P. cincinnata species. The P. edulis presented a higher bioactive content and AOX when compared to P. cincinnata. Citric and malic acids were the main organic acids found. The principal component analysis-PCA associated the highest values of quercetin-3-glucoside, hesperidin, trans-caftaric acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, trans-resveratrol, rutin, procyanidin-B2, epigallocatechin-gallate and epicatechin-gallate, to P. cincinnata. The P. edulis was associated with higher values of total phenolic, vitamin C, total carotenoids, AOX (DPPH^•, ABTS^+• and FRAP), cis-resveratrol, naringenin, kaempferol-3-glucoside, myricetin and procyanidin-B1. P. cincinnata, although not a commercial species such as P. edulis, presented phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity in acceptable values, including the high values of quercetin 3-glucoside. The present study contributes to the knowledge of the physical-chemical composition of the Passiflora species.

KEYWORDS:

• Passion fruit
• phenolic compounds
• organic acids
• HPLC

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA Semiarid) for providing Passion fruit samples to be analyzed in this study.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Ethical Approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.