FUNCTIONAL POTENTIAL OF AMAZONIAN BIOMASS: PROTEIN EXTRACTION, FLAVONOIDS, PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF MURUMURU CAKE (Astrocaryum muru-muru)

The state of Pará is located in the Amazon biome and has a wide area of trees that attract attention for their wood and fruits, among which oilseeds are used for oil extraction, generating a by-product that is discarded, that is called as cake (a biomass) that is underutilized by industry. This lack of attractiveness is due to the scarcity of studies on its functional potential. The lack of works that explore the properties of these fruits and their respective biomass contribute to their trees being the great attraction in the region, causing deforestation in the Amazon. Considering the use and valorization of by-products from Amazonian, the work aimed to explore the functional potential of murumuru biomass by obtaining its protein and extracts, evaluating its content of total flavonoids (TF), total phenolic compounds (TPC), and antioxidant activity. Proteins were extracted at pH 10.0 followed by isoelectric precipitation at pH 4.5. Molecular mass was determined by SDS-PAGE. The extract was obtained using a 40 khz ultrasonic tank from the optimal condition of a complete experimental design of two levels 2³ of a star type, in conditions previously carried out from tests conducted in previous works of this research group, where it was found from of the desirability tool (D value = 0.73) the extraction condition of 30 min, solids 0.5% (w/v) and ethanol concentration 50% (v/v). The protein extraction yield was 4.9% with purity of 51% with electrophoretic bands between 35 and 10 kDa. The biomass also showed results for TCP, TF, and DPPH of 956.91 mg EAG/100 g, 229.09 mg quercetin/100 g, and 3500.2 µmol trolox eq/g, respectively. From the study, it is concluded that biomass has great potential for exploiting its peptides and bioactive compounds as fine chemical products or even plant-based ingredients to exercise functionality in industrialized foods.