Nutritional characterization of Vasconcellea quercifolia A.St-Hil.: potential for the development of functional food

Pachira aquatica (Malvaceae): An unconventional food plant with food, technological, and nutritional potential to be explored

Pachira aquatica (Malvaceae) is an unconventional food plant (UFP) native to Mexico and found all over Brazil, where it is commonly known as monguba. It has an arboreal shape, exotic flowers, and a fruit similar to cocoa with several seeds. Although its main application is in urban ornamentation and folk medicine, monguba's fruit has a great potential for use in the food, pharmacology, cosmetic, and bioenergy industry, mainly due to its oil's characteristics. This review aims to compile the nutritional composition, bioactive and antioxidant activities, and technological and nutritional potential of monguba's seed, leaf, and fruit pericarp. It reviews studies of different databases between January 2018 and October 2021. Monguba seeds are rich in lipids, proteins, and minerals; the bark is rich in fiber; and all parts of the fruit have bioactive compounds. Discussing the use of UFP is a way of finding new alternative food sources, usually discarded, offering products with high nutritional value allied to technological and consumption potential, such as the monguba fruit.

Nutritional potential of Vasconcellea quercifolia A. St.-Hil. green fruit flour

Abstract Non-conventional food plants have a variety of bioactive compounds with nutritional value. Vasconcellea quercifolia A. St.-Hil., belonging to the Caricaceae family, is a dietary alternative with excellent nutritional composition. This study aimed at characterizing the nutritional composition of mountain papaya (V. quercifolia) green fruit flour, in order to incorporate it in a functional food. For that purpose, the flour was characterized regarding its macro and micronutrients, anti-nutritional factors, pH, water activity, and color. This flour showed contents of carbohydrate of 22.31%; protein of 9.65%; dietary fiber of 32.80%; lipids of 14.95%, 63.56% of which are unsaturated fatty acids, especially oleic acid; and ash of 9.10%, with higher concentrations for potassium, calcium and magnesium. Therefore, V. quercifolia flour had good nutritional characteristics and might be used as supplementary food.

GC-MS Based Metabolite Profiling to Monitor Ripening-Specific Metabolites in Pineapple (Ananas comosus)

Pineapple is one of the most cultivated tropical, non-climacteric fruits in the world due to its high market value and production volume. Since non-climacteric fruits do not ripen after harvest, the ripening stage at the time of harvest is an important factor that determines sensory quality and shelf life. The objective of this research was to investigate metabolite changes in the pineapple ripening process by metabolite profiling approach. Pineapple (Queen variety) samples from Indonesia were subjected to GC-MS analysis. A total of 56, 47, and 54 metabolites were annotated from the crown, flesh, and peel parts, respectively. From the principal component analysis (PCA) plot, separation of samples based on ripening stages from C0-C2 (early ripening stages) and C3-C4 (late ripening stages) was observed for flesh and peel parts, whereas no clear separation was seen for the crown part. Furthermore, orthogonal projection to latent structures (OPLS) analysis suggested metabolites that were associated with the ripening stages in flesh and peel parts of pineapple. This study indicated potentially important metabolites that are correlated to the ripening of pineapple that would provide a basis for further study on pineapple ripening process.