Antioxidant capacity, phenolic content and vitamin C in pulp, peel and seed from 24 exotic fruits from Colombia

Twenty-four exotic Colombian fruits were evaluated for antioxidant activity and total soluble phenolics (TP) (edible part, seed and peel) and ascorbic acid content (edible part). The antioxidant activities were evaluated by ABTS (free radical-scavenging capacity) and FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power) methods. The ABTS, FRAP, TP and ascorbic acid values in the edible part were 3.25 to 175 μM Trolox equiv/g fresh weight (FW), 6.29 to 144 μM Trolox equiv/g FW, 15.7 to 1018 mg gallic acid equiv/100 g FW, and 0.53 to 257 mg ascorbic acid/100 g FW respectively. There were positive correlations between antioxidant activity (assessed by both ABTS and FRAP) and TP and ascorbic acid with the FRAP and ABTS methods. The edible part of banana passion fruits (P. tarminiana and P. mollisima) exhibited the highest values of antioxidant activity and total phenolics, while the highest level of ascorbic acid was recorded in the edible part of guava apple and cashew. The seeds with the highest values of antioxidant activity and total phenols were cashew, algarrobo, arazá and coastal sapote, while the peel of coastal sapote and algarrobo had the highest values of antioxidant activity and total phenolics. To the best of our knowledge, this paper reports the first evaluation of pulp, seed and skin of Colombian tropical fruits with a view to their knowledge utilization for the development of novel functional food products.