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Wild Arbutus unedo L. and Rubusulmifolius Schott fruits are underutilized sources of valuable bioactivecompounds with antioxidant capacity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2014

Brígida María Ruiz-Rodríguez ,
Concepción Sánchez-Moreno ,
Begoña De Ancos ,
María de Cortes Sánchez-Mata ,
Virginia Fernández-Ruiz ,
Montaña Cámara  and
Javier Tardío
Brígida María Ruiz-Rodríguez
Affiliation:
Fac. Farmacia, Univ. Complut. Madrid (UCM), Pza. Ramón y Cajal, s/n, ES-28040, Madrid, Spain
Concepción Sánchez-Moreno*
Affiliation:
Inst. Cienc. Tecnol. Aliment. Nutr., Cons. Super. Investig. Cient. (ICTAN-CSIC), José Antonio Novais 10, ES-28040 Madrid, Spain,. csanchezm@ictan.csic.es
Begoña De Ancos
Affiliation:
Inst. Cienc. Tecnol. Aliment. Nutr., Cons. Super. Investig. Cient. (ICTAN-CSIC), José Antonio Novais 10, ES-28040 Madrid, Spain,. csanchezm@ictan.csic.es
María de Cortes Sánchez-Mata
Affiliation:
Fac. Farmacia, Univ. Complut. Madrid (UCM), Pza. Ramón y Cajal, s/n, ES-28040, Madrid, Spain
Virginia Fernández-Ruiz
Affiliation:
Fac. Farmacia, Univ. Complut. Madrid (UCM), Pza. Ramón y Cajal, s/n, ES-28040, Madrid, Spain
Montaña Cámara
Affiliation:
Fac. Farmacia, Univ. Complut. Madrid (UCM), Pza. Ramón y Cajal, s/n, ES-28040, Madrid, Spain
Javier Tardío
Affiliation:
Inst. Madr. Investig. Desarro Rural, Agrar. Aliment. (IMIDRA), Finca “El Encín”, Apdo. 127, ES-28800, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
*
* Correspondence and reprints
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Abstract

Introduction. Several studies reveal the important role played by‘lesser-known’ wild fruits since they contain nutritional and functional compounds whichhave biological properties. Materials and methods. Our work studied thepresence of bioactive compounds such as vitamin C (ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbicacid), total phenolic content, phenolic acids, flavonols, anthocyanins and the antioxidantcapacity (FRAP, ABTS•+ and DPPH• in vitro tests) in wild fruits ofArbutus unedo L. and Rubus ulmifolius Schott ofSpanish origin, including samples from different seasons and locations. Results anddiscussion. A wide variability was found in the composition of fruits of the samespecies, which substantiates the importance of analyzing several batches of wild fruits,to achieve representative results, taking into account the natural variability.Arbustus unedo fruits showed higher vitamin C, mainly in the ascorbicacid form, and phenolic content than R. ulmifolius [(172–419) mg ascorbicacid×100 g–1 fw vs. (5.99–26.83) mg ascorbic acid×100 g–1 fw, and(773–1621) mg total phenolic compounds×100 g–1 fw vs. (376–1326) mg totalphenolic compounds×100 g–1 fw, respectively]; phenolic acids and anthocyanins are themajor groups of phenolic compounds found in both species, with gallic acid and cyanidin3-glucoside as the main compounds. Arbustus unedo fruits showedsignificantly higher Folin-Ciocalteu values than those of R. ulmifolius.These values are higher than those reported for the majority of berries. The significantcorrelations found among different antioxidant compounds (r > 0.6300,P < 0.001) may reveal a protective effect between ascorbic acid andphenolic acids or anthocyanins in the fruits. Therefore, Arbutus unedoand R. ulmifolius fruits should be considered as new importantsources of safe antioxidants.

Keywords

SpainArbutus unedoRubus ulmifoliusfruitsphenolic compoundsphenolic contentantioxidantsEspagneArbutus unedoRubus ulmifoliusfruitscomposés phénoliquesteneur en phénolsantioxidantEspañaArbutus unedoRubus ulmifoliusfruitscompuestos fenólicoscontenido fenólicoantioxidantes

Information

Type
Original article
Information
Fruits , Volume 69 , Issue 6 , November 2014 , pp. 435 - 448
Copyright
© 2014 Cirad/EDP Sciences

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