Phytochemistry and health benefits of jaboticaba, an emerging fruit crop from Brazil

Many edible dark-colored fruits, rich in anthocyanins, are thought to be important for human health. Jaboticaba (Myrciaria cauliflora (Mart.) O. Berg) fruit, native to Brazil, is a pleasant-tasting, dark-colored fruit, and a rich source of a wide variety of phenolic compounds, including flavonoids, anthocyanins, tannins, phenolic acids, as well as less well-known polyphenols like depsides. These dietary phenolics and polyphenols are important natural products, most of them having human health benefits, such as treating or preventing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and stroke. In the past decade, there has been an increase in the number of publications about jaboticaba. This review will discuss the morphology, taxonomy, nutritional composition, and use of the edible parts of jaboticaba (i.e. peel and pulp). In addition, an exhaustive survey of this fruit's secondary products, including volatiles, anthocyanins, and other phenolics, is included, and related to the ethnobotanical use of this plant in Brazil and implications of these compounds to human health. Optimization of extraction, focusing on bioactive constituents from this fruit, will be discussed, and prospects and challenges of future jaboticaba studies are pointed out. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.