ANTIOXIDANT CAPACITY AND BIOATIVE COMPOUNDS OF IN NATURA AND DEHYDRATED ACEROLA BYPRODUCT

The acerola subproducts have high functional potential and can be used for the enrichment of recipes and diets or for the elaboration of new food products. The objective of this study was to determine bioactive compounds in natural acerola byproduct submitted to different dehydration processes. Byproduct in natura (BIN) of 4 batches, separated between 5 and 2 mm sieves, was obtained in a pulp industry and subjected to two dehydration treatments: freeze-drying and oven drying with air circulation at 65 ° C. Subsequently, they were crushed and sieved (20 mesh) to obtain lyophilized byproduct flour (LBF) and greenhouse byproduct flour (GBF), respectively. The BIN, LBF and GBF products were analyzed for the ascorbic acid content by titulometric method using dichlorophenolindofenol, whereas the carotenoids, anthocyanins and flavonoids by spectrophotometry. Methanolic (80%) and aqueous extracts were obtained and determined as total phenols and antioxidant capacity by the Folin-Ciocalteau methods and 1.1 diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, respectively. All results were converted to dry basis. The concentration of total phenolic compounds (mg 100g-1) in the BIN, LBF and GBF treatments resulted in general averages of 3352.38, 2404.37 and 1442.06 for the methanolic extracts and 2424.92, 1524.74 and 1795.91 for the aqueous extracts respectively. The levels of anthocyanins (mg 100g-1) present in BIN, LBF and GBF were 34.43, 4.23 and 3.66, flavonoids (mg 100g-1) were 97.08, 64.24 and 58.78, beta-carotene (mg 100g-1) were 0.86, 1.04, 1.03, ascorbic acid (mg 100g-1) were 5588.17, 3064.25 and 983.12, antioxidant potential (EC50 -μg mL-1), in methanolic extract was 38.33, 150.90 and 212.89 and in aqueous extract was 78.51, 197.78, 220.23, respectively. The drying processes provided significant losses of bioactive compounds, except beta-carotene. The drying process by freeze drying compared to the greenhouse resulted in lower losses of total phenols, ascorbic acid and antioxidant potential (methanolic extract) in acerola byproducts.