Research paperQuality, bioactive compounds and antioxidant capacity of selected climacteric fruits with relation to their maturity

•Total phenolic and vitamin C decreased, while β-carotene increased during ripening.•Ripening increases contents of gallic, vanillic, chlorogenic and sinapic acids.•No correlation existed between ripening stage and antioxidant capacity.•Quercetin had an extremely positively correlated with the ripening stages.•Myricetin, luteolin and sinapic acid might be responsible for antioxidant capacity.

The variation in physicochemical characteristics, bioactive components and antioxidant capacity of three climacteric fruits, namely banana, mango and papaya were investigated. Correlations between ripeness and bioactive compounds as well as antioxidant capacity were also studied. From physicochemical analysis, hardness and firmness of fruit declined during ripening, which were consistent with loss in crude fiber and increase in total soluble solid. Total phenolic, vitamin C and antioxidant capacity were superior for green fruit, while opposite was observed for β-carotene content. Ripening clearly decreased total phenolic acids and total flavonoids contents determined using RP-HPLC. We found that ripening was correlated at a highly significant level with individual phenolic acids (gallic, vanillic, chlorogenic and sinapic acids) and individual flavonoid (quercetin) (p < 0.001), whereas a very significant correlation (p < 0.01) was observed with vitamin C, β-carotene and caffeic acid. However, no correlation existed between ripening and antioxidant capacity. Our findings have provided novel information about how best to select the appropriate maturity of fruits that contains the highest amount of specific bioactive markers linking to the best health benefits or functional properties.