Chemical and nutritional properties of different fractions of Prosopis alba pods and seeds

Abstract

The objective of this work was to study chemical and nutritional aspects of different fractions of Prosopis alba. Flours from whole pod, pericarp (pulp) and seeds were obtained. Polyphenols were mainly located in pulp but antioxidant activity was higher in whole pod flour and seeds. In seeds, the fraction with the highest polyphenols and antioxidant activity was the seed coat or testa. Protein content was higher in whole pod flour (5.81 %) than in pulp flour (3.52 %), presenting the seed an appreciable amount 33.6 %. These proteins were composed by monomer subunits of 85, 67, 38, 16 and 14 kDa and no prolamins and anti-tryptic activity were detected. P. alba flours presented high content of soluble sugars, mainly composed by sucrose, and also high amount of insoluble dietary fiber. The major mineral was potassium. The whole pod, due to the contribution of seeds, contained high amount of calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc, all indispensable minerals for human nutrition. Therefore, P. alba flours, mainly containing the seeds, constitute nutritional ingredients for bakery and gluten free products.

Chemical and nutritional characterization of raw and thermal-treated flours of Mesquite (Prosopis laevigata) pods and their residual brans

“…The protein MF content reported here for P. laevigata (105 g/kg), is slightly higher than previous reported values for P. alba (Felker et al, 2003), P. glandulosa (Harden & Zolfaghari, 1988) and P. pallida (Felker et al, 2003) with 80, 70, and 100 g/kg, respectively. The protein content reported here for SF of P. laevigata (310 g/kg) is higher than previously reported values for P. Africana (Igwe et al, 2012) and similar to P. alba (Sciammaro et al, 2016), P. juliflora (Marangoni & Alli, 1988) and P. glandulosa (Harden & Zolfaghari, 1988). Similar whole pod flours (mesocarp-SF) protein content have been reported for P. chilensis (Astudillo et al, 2000), P. glandulosa (Harden & Zolfaghari, 1988), and P. tamarugo (Astudillo et al, 2000).…”

“…Major increases in UV absorbance were found in thermaltreated flours with high levels of monosaccharides (Table 2), a substrate for Maillard reaction. Previous works reported the total phenolic compounds content in flours of Prosopis species using the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent method (Bernardi et al, 2010;Briones-Labarca et al, 2011;Cardozo et al, 2010;Cattaneo et al, 2016;Gallegos-Infante et al, 2013;Perez et al, 2014;Schmeda-Hirschmann et al, 2015;Sciammaro et al, 2016) with variability in the values, which can be due to different samples, species and sample treatment. Sample treatment during drying could enhance Maillard reaction activity, indirectly modifying the total phenolic compound content of Prosopis flours.…”

“…The mature fruit of the genus Prosopis is an indehiscent pod conformed by an exocarp, a developed mesocarp, and a woody endocarp which protects the seed (Felker et al, 2013). Pods and pods fractions of Prosopis species have been described in their nutritional profile: P. africana (Igwe, Ojiako, Anugweje, Nwaogu, & Ujowundu, 2012), P. alba (Cattaneo et al, 2016;Felker, Grados, Cruz, & Prokopiuk, 2003;Sciammaro, Ferrero, & Puppo, 2016), P. chilensis (Astudillo, Schmeda-Hirschmann, Herrera, & Cortes, 2000), P. glandulosa (Harden & Zolfaghari, 1988), P juliflora (Marangoni & Alli, 1988), P. laevigata (Barba de la Rosa, Frias-Hernandez, Olalde-Portugal, & Gonzalez-Castañeda, 2006; Gallegos-Infante, Rocha-Guzman, Gonzalez-Laredo, & Garcia-Casas, 2013), P. nigra (Felker et al, 2003), P. ruscifolia (Bernardi, Sanchez, Freyre, & Osella, 2010), and P. tamarugo (Astudillo et al, 2000); active compounds content and in vitro biological activity: P. alba (Cardozo et al, 2010;Cattaneo et al, 2016;Perez et al, 2014;Sciammaro et al, 2016), P. chilensis (Astudillo et al, 2000;Briones-Labarca, Muñoz, & Maureira, 2011;Schmeda-Hirschmann et al, 2015), P. laevigata (Gallegos-Infante et al, 2013), P. nigra (Cardozo et al, 2010;Perez et al, 2014), P. ruscifolia (Bernardi et al, 2010), and P. tamarugo (Astudillo et al, 2000); and in vivo biological activity: P. glandulosa (George, Lochner, & Huisamen, 2011;Huisamen, George, Dietrich, & Genade, 2013). Nutritionally, pods of Prosopis species are gluten free (Bernardi et al, 2010;Felker et al, 2013) and rich in good quality protein (Barba de la Rosa et...…”

“…Nutritionally, pods of Prosopis species are gluten free (Bernardi et al, 2010;Felker et al, 2013) and rich in good quality protein (Barba de la Rosa et al, 2006) or limited in sulfur amino acids (Felker & Bandurski, 1977;Felker et al, 2013) and threonine (Felker & Bandurski, 1977;Igwe et al, 2012). The mesocarp of pods is rich in sugars (31%-50%), sucrose principally (Felker et al, 2013;Sciammaro et al, 2016). Trypsin inhibitors and phytohemagglutinins are present in seeds, which are denatured and inactivated upon heating (Barba de la Rosa et al, 2006;Gallegos-Infante et al, 2013).…”

“…Pods of Prosopis species have been reported as a source of bioactive compounds (Felker et al, 2013;Schmeda-Hirschmann et al, 2015). Mesocarp (Schmeda-Hirschmann et al, 2015), seed (Bernardi et al, 2010;Briones-Labarca et al, 2011;Cattaneo et al, 2016;Sciammaro et al, 2016) and whole pod flours are a good source of polyphenolic compounds (Cardozo et al, 2010;Cattaneo et al, 2016;Gallegos-Infante et al, 2013;Perez et al, 2014;Sciammaro et al, 2016) with antioxidant (Bernardi et al, 2010;Briones-Labarca et al, 2011;Cardozo et al, 2010;Cattaneo et al, 2016;Perez et al, 2014;Schmeda-Hirschmann et al, 2015;Sciammaro et al, 2016), anti-inflammatory (Cattaneo et al, 2016;Perez et al, 2014), antihypertensive (Gallegos-Infante et al, 2013;Huisamen et al, 2013), and hypoglycemic (George et al, 2011) activities. Best biochemically described Prosopis species are the South American species P. alba, P. chilensis, and the North American P. glandulosa.…”