NUTRITIONAL QUALITY AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY, BURITI OIL TO USE AS INPUT NUTRACEUTICAL CANDIES

The Amazon rainforest has a wide variety of edible native species, rich in bioactive compounds and macronutrients. Among them, buriti stands out, whose oil is rich in antioxidants and unsaturated fatty acids that help prevent cardiovascular disease. In this context, candies are vehicles for nutraceutical inputs that have the advantages of stability, sensory appeal, and functional delivery. The objective of this study was to evaluate the lipid and antioxidant profile of buriti oil for use as an input in nutraceutical candies. Buriti oil was purchased from Amazon Oil (Ananindeua, Para, Brazil) and characterized in terms of fatty acid profile, thrombogenicity index (TI), and atherogenicity index (AI), in addition to evaluating its antioxidant activity (DPPH and ABTS). The candies were produced using gelatin, gum arabic, and sorbitol. A total of five formulations were produced, varying the concentrations of gelatin (5% to 16.7%) and gum arabic (5% to 10%). The candies were analyzed for their organoleptic characteristics and antioxidant activity (DPPH and ABTS). Buriti oil is mainly composed of oleic acid (69.35%), palmitic acid (18.2%), and linoleic acid (6.64%). The atherogenicity and thrombogenicity indices were 0.24 and 0.48, respectively. Regarding antioxidant activity, buriti oil presented a result of 210.33 µM by the ABTS method and 175 µM of Trolox by the DPPH method. The candy produced with 16.7% gelatin, 10% gum arabic, and 5% sorbitol was macroscopically homogeneous and consistent enough to continue the study. To this formulation, 5% buriti oil was added, which presented the characteristic color and odor of buriti oil and antioxidant activity results of 435.56 µM of Trolox (ABTS) and 551.11 µM of Trolox (DPPH). It is hypothesized that the candies presented higher antioxidant activity values than the oil values because the excipients also contain substances capable of sequestering and capturing the radicals used in the antioxidant analysis. Finally, the nutraceutical candy produced with buriti oil maintained the sensory characteristics (color and odor) of the oil and its functional property, antioxidant activity.