Influence of drying and roasting on chemical composition, lipid profile and antioxidant activity of jurubeba (Solanum paniculatum L.)

The jurubeba (Solanum paniculatum L.) is an unconventional food plant, with few studies carried out so far, is a promising fruit and conservation methods are necessary to increase its shelf life. The objective was to evaluate the effect of dehydration and roasting of the fresh fruits in chemical composition, fatty acid composition, triacylglycerol profile, total phenolics, and antioxidant activity. Three treatments were obtained: fresh samples unripe; dehydrated samples subjected to drying in an air-circulation oven forced at 50 degrees C for 24 h; roasted samples it was used dehydrated fruits, subjecting them to the muffle at 190 degrees C for 20 min. We found 13 fatty acids, the percentage of them was modified by heat treatment, roasting had an increase of 9% in the sum of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The dehydration and roasting processes don't change triacylglycerides of jurubeba while modifying their percentages, and their profile, as compared to the fresh sample. The antioxidant activity (increase of 140% and 807%) and total phenolic compounds (increase of 14% and 86%) in relation of jurubeba fresh. The PCA analysis explained 100% of the variation in sample composition, being that PC1 explained 72.7% and PC2 explained 27.3% of the data, evaluating the generated PCA graph we observed that there was no formation of groups, that is, the samples did not show similarity to each other. The jurubeba proved to be a promising fruit, encouraging future investigations into its application in new products in the food and pharmaceutical industries, which can add value to this fruit.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the effect of dehydration and roasting on the chemical composition, fatty acid composition, antioxidant activity, and other aspects of jurubeba. The results showed that roasting increased the proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids in jurubeba, and also increased its antioxidant activity and total phenolic compounds. The principal component analysis revealed no clear similarity between the samples.