Structure and content of phenolics in eggplant (Solanum melongena) - a review

In the last years eggplant has received a great interest as functional food, being classified among top ten vegetables with antioxidant capacity because of its high content of phenolics. This vegetable is rich in the content of anthocyanins in the peel and also rich in the content of phenolic acids in the flesh, being delphinidin derivartives and chlorogenic acid isomers the main phenolic compounds in those anatomic parts, respectively. A lot of studies of eggplant phenolics have been published in the last years, which include a great number of genotypes with a wide fruit diversity in shapes, sizes and colors. The content and the chemical structures of the eggplant phenolics are the topics discussed in the present review.