In this article, the chemistry, plant sources, pharmacological properties, and patents of pomolic acid (PA) are reviewed for the first time. Also known as benthamic acid, PA is a pentacyclic triterpenoid of the ursane type. Its chemical structure has a 30-carbon skeleton comprising five six-membered rings A-E with seven methyl groups and two hydroxyl groups. PA was first isolated from the peels of apples. The compound is commonly reported in species of the families Rosaceae and Lamiaceae. Anti-cancer activities represent the major pharmacological properties of PA with breast cancer and leukemia cells being most susceptible. A wide array of other pharmacological properties of PA have been reported. PA has two patents filed by the same group of scientists from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Some areas for further research on PA are suggested. Sources of information were from Google Scholar, PubMed, PubMed Central, Science Direct, J-Stage, and PubChem.
Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables (FFV) are a staple of minimally processed products in food retail outlets with the wellness industry promoting the exclusion of ultra-processed foods from diets. This is a large market with the production of fruits and vegetables worldwide being 126 million tons in 2019 (Saydivalievich, 2020).FFV are visually attractive and minimally processed but are very susceptible to enzymatic browning (EB), which is a big challenge for retailers. According to Ioannou and Ghoul (2013), food losses from EB is second only to microbiological contamination. In most cases, there are more than 50% of food discolored by EB is discarded (Shrestha et al., 2020). Thus, the economic implications of preventing EB are huge.The formation of undesirable dark pigments by EB brought about by injury and release of the enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO, EC: 1.14.18.1). PPO hydroxylates monophenols substrate to o-diphenols then oxidizes into o-quinone. O-quinone will undergo further polymerization with amino acids, proteins, quinones, or phenols to form the dark pigment which is known as melanin (Lim et al., 2019;Taranto et al., 2017). FFV are not affected by non-enzymatic browning unless they are cooked. The browning discoloration on the
Food browning is an undesirable phenomenon caused by the enzyme polyphenol oxidase that led to food wastage and eventually deteriorates the market value. In this study, the effect of natural inhibitors including red grapefruit, key lime, red chili pepper, and pineapple on polyphenol oxidase extracted from pearl brinjal was investigated. As for the effects of chemical inhibitors, L‐cysteine exhibited stronger inhibition (IC50: 0.29 mM), as compared to citric acid (IC50: 50.73 mM). Meanwhile, red chili pepper was found to be the best natural inhibitor (IC50: 65.78 mg/ml), followed by red grapefruit, key lime, and lastly pineapple (IC50: 145.90, 206.78, and 216.86 mg/ml, respectively). All the natural inhibitors showed an increase in inhibition percentage along with an increase in inhibitor concentration (13.33 ± 3.82–48.93 ± 3.05%). The present findings suggested the potential of red grapefruit, key lime, red chili pepper, and pineapple to replace chemical inhibitors in the future to inhibit browning.
Novelty impact statement
The use of natural inhibitors does safeguard health‐concerned consumers on obtaining both browning and chemical‐free food. Red chili pepper was found to be a potential natural inhibitor to replace chemical inhibitors to inhibit the browning of pearl brinjal. Both red chili pepper and pearl brinjal are also compatible in terms of palatability, which makes them a good combination for food industries to produce for consumers to taste with minimal browning.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.