Phenolic compounds and vitamins in wild and cultivated apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) fruits grown in irrigated and dry farming conditions

A View on the Chemical and Biological Attributes of Five Edible Fruits after Finishing Their Shelf Life: Studies on Caco-2 Cells

We studied five common perishable fruits in terms of their polyphenols dynamic, minerals distribution, scavenger activity and the effects of 50% ethanolic extracts on the viability of Caco-2 cells in vitro, over a period of time between T = 0 and T = 5/7 days, typically the end of their shelf life. Altogether, there were few changes found, consisting of either an increase or a decrease in their chemical and biological attributes. A slow decrease was found in the antioxidant activity in apricot (-11%), plum (-6%) and strawberry (-4%) extracts, while cherry and green seedless table grape extracts gained 7% and 2% antioxidant potency, respectively; IC50 values ranged from 1.67 to 5.93 μg GAE/μL test extract. The cytotoxicity MTS assay at 24 h revealed the ability of all 50% ethanol fruit extracts to inhibit the Caco-2 cell viability; the inhibitory effects ranged from 49% to 83% and were measured at 28 µg GAE for strawberry extracts/EES, from 22 µg to 45 µg GAE for cherry extracts/EEC, from 7.58 to 15.16 µg GAE for apricot extracts/EEA, from 12.50 to 25.70 µg GAE for plum extracts/EEP and from 21.51 to 28.68 µg GAE for green table grape extracts/EEG. The MTS anti-proliferative assay (72 h) also revealed a stimulatory potency upon the Caco-2 viability, from 34% (EEA, EEG) and 48% (EEC) to 350% (EES) and 690% (EEP); therefore fruit juices can influence intestinal tumorigenesis in humans.

High-Pressure Carbon Dioxide Use to Control Dried Apricot Pests, Tribolium castaneum and Rhyzopertha dominica, and Assessing the Qualitative Traits of Dried Pieces of Treated Apricot

One of the new ways of warehouse pest control is the carbon dioxide treatment, which had no residues on the target products. In the present research, at first, CO2 gas was applied to control two important pest species infesting dried apricots. Dry apricots infested with adults of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) or Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) were exposed to CO2 gas pressures correspond to 9.1, 16.7, 23.1, 28.6, and 33.4 mol% for 24 h. The results showed higher mortality rates with increasing the gas pressures in all the experiments. The minimum and maximum losses of the pests were determined at concentrations of 9.1 and 33.4 mol%, respectively. Evaluation of CO2 gas effects on the quality characteristics of dried apricots showed no impacts on the color, brittleness, hardness, sweetness, sourness, and general acceptance of products. CO2 gas treatments at the concentration of 33.4 mol% showed no significant influences on the chemical features of dried apricots, including pH, acidity, Brix, humidity percentage, reducing sugar, and total sugar. It was concluded that CO2 gas had the potential to control T. castaneum and R. dominica in warehouses of dried apricots, without any significant impacts on product qualities.

Investigation of Amounts of Vitamins, Lycopene, and Elements in the Fruits of Opuntia ficus-indica Subjected to Different Pretreatments

In this study, Opuntia ficus-indica fruit was examined in fresh, frozen, sun-dried, and microwave-dried. Analysis of the vitamins in the samples was performed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The amount of selenium in the fruits was determined by fluorescence spectrophotometer, while copper, iron, manganese, and zinc were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Amount of vitamins in the fruit of Opuntia ficus-indica were decreased (p < 0.005) in sun- and microwave-dried samples in comparison with fresh sample. Decrease of vitamins in frozen fruits was statistically insignificant compared with fresh fruit (p > 0.05). The amounts of selenium, copper, iron, manganese, and zinc in Opuntia ficus-indica fruit were found to be 0.38 ± 0.03, 23.84 ± 1.82, 94.32 ± 7.04, 13.68 ± 0.88, and 188.44 ± 15.16 μg/g dw, respectively. It can be concluded that the fruit of Opuntia ficus-indica is rich in vitamin E, lycopene, ascorbic acid, nicotine amide, folic acid, iron, and zinc. The most suitable preservation techniques for Opuntia ficus-indica fruits are freezing to consume it in all season.

Optimization of extraction methods for characterization of phenolic compounds in apricot fruit (Prunus armeniaca)

Fruits are rich in phenolic compounds with health-promoting activities. However, phenolic profiles vary between fruits. Hence, specific extraction methods are required for accurate profiling of the functional compounds. This study aims to develop an optimised method by response surface methodology to extract phenolics from apricots (Prunus armeniaca) and correctly characterise apricots' phenolic profile. For this, the effects of the solid-to-liquid ratio, temperature, extraction solvent, extraction time and sequential extraction steps on the extraction of major phenolic families were investigated. Methanol- and ethanol-based extractions were suitable, although methanol was the optimal solvent. The optimised extraction conditions were 20 g mL-1, 38 °C and 72% methanol (1% formic acid). When this method was used in apricots, the characterisation of their phenolic profile by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS showed a higher extraction of phenolic compounds than other studies in the literature that use non-specific extraction methods. The developed method is fast and economically feasible for accurate characterisation of the phenolic profile of apricot fruits and thus can be routinely used to extract apricot phenolic compounds for their characterisation.