Abstract

TORRES-RODRIGUEZ, A. et al. Proanthocyanidins and enzymatic activity in mamey sapote (Pouteria sapota) fruit during ripening. Revista bio ciencias [online]. 2019, vol.6, e565.  Epub Oct 02, 2020. ISSN 2007-3380.  https://doi.org/10.15741/revbio.06.e565.

The fruit of mamey sapote (Pouteria sapota) has high content of soluble phenolic compounds that have not been characterized and some of these compounds are the substrate of enzymes related with flesh browning fruit. The objectives were: i) to study the proanthocyanidins in mamey sapote fruit, ii) to determine the activity of the polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase, and iii) to evaluate their changes during the ripening process. The proanthocyanidins were quantified by butanol/HCl, DMAC (4 - (dimethylamino) cinnamaldehyde) and vanillin methods. The characterization was done by HPLC. Enzymatic activity was determined by spectrophotometry methods. The proanthocyanidin (PAs) content showed a reduction with fruit ripeness progress. With DMAC method the reduction was of 2.8 times from preclimacteric stage (CS) to horticultural maturity (HM); the content with vanillin method was reduced 1.6 times from CS to HM. At HM, PAs content was of 124.8 mg equivalent of catechin/100 fresh weight and of 322.4 mg equivalent of proanthocyanidin B2/100 g fresh weight, for DMAC and vanillin methods, respectively. The monomeric PAs (catechin, epicatechin and epicatechin-3 gallate) did not change (p>0.05) during the ripening process. The enzymatic activity of peroxidase increases at the end of ripening process and was related with flesh browning. The mamey sapote is an important source of oligomeric proanthocyanidins.

Keywords : Pouteria sapota; tropical fruit; condensed tannins; enzymatic activity.