BIOACTIVE POTENTIAL OF OLEOSOMES EXTRACTED FROM JERIVÁ, LICURI AND BABASSU KERNELS

Oleosomes are natural lipid bodies with potential application as functional food ingredients due to their intrinsic interfacial organization and association with bioactive compounds. This study aimed to extract and comparatively characterize oleosome-rich cream fractions obtained from kernels of jerivá (Syagrus romanzoffiana), licuri (Syagrus coronata) and babassu (Attalea speciosa), focusing on recovery yield, lipid and protein contents, total phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity. The fractions were obtained by aqueous extraction using sucrose and NaCl solution at adjusted pH, followed by homogenization, filtration and centrifugation. Lipid and protein contents, total phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity by DPPH and ABTS assays were determined in triplicate. Results were expressed as mean ± standard deviation and compared by one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s test at 5% significance. Recovery yields were 71.12% for licuri, 60.00% for jerivá and 57.66% for babassu, indicating greater recovery of the cream fraction from licuri under the extraction conditions employed. Lipid content differed significantly among all matrices (p < 0.05), with babassu showing the highest value (81.00 ± 0.31%), followed by licuri (67.00 ± 0.25%) and jerivá (56.00 ± 0.18%). Thus, babassu contained approximately 20.9% and 44.6% more lipids than licuri and jerivá, respectively. Licuri showed significantly higher protein content (1.17 ± 0.01 mg/mL) than jerivá (1.10 ± 0.01 mg/mL) and babassu (1.10 ± 0.02 mg/mL), which did not differ from each other (p < 0.05). Total phenolic content also differed significantly among the three matrices, with licuri presenting the highest value (9.06 ± 0.18 mg GAE/g), followed by jerivá (3.73 ± 0.03 mg GAE/g) and babassu (2.70 ± 0.01 mg GAE/g). The phenolic content of licuri was therefore approximately 2.4-fold and 3.4-fold higher than that of jerivá and babassu, respectively. Antioxidant capacity followed the same general predominance of licuri. In the DPPH assay, licuri reached 32.30 ± 0.18% RSA, significantly exceeding jerivá (17.62 ± 0.37% RSA) and babassu (13.10 ± 0.25% RSA), corresponding to activities approximately 83% and 147% higher, respectively. In the ABTS assay, licuri exhibited 69.70 ± 0.23% RSA, compared with 22.50 ± 0.34% RSA for babassu and 10.70 ± 0.16% RSA for jerivá, representing values approximately 3.1-fold and 6.5-fold higher, respectively (p < 0.05). Overall, the oleosome-rich fractions showed clearly distinct compositional and bioactive profiles depending on botanical source. Babassu stood out for its higher lipid content, whereas licuri combined the highest recovery yield with greater protein and phenolic contents and the strongest radical-scavenging activity. These findings demonstrate that underexplored Brazilian palm kernels are promising sources of compositionally distinct oleosome-rich fractions and support their further investigation as natural lipid-based ingredients for functional food applications. The authors thank FAPEMIG, CAPES and CNPq for financial support.