Promising Tropical Fruits High in Folates

Abstract

As the popularity of tropical fruits has been increasing consistently during the last few decades, nutritional and health-related data about these fruits have been gaining more and more interest. Therefore, we analyzed 35 samples of tropical fruits and vegetables with respect to folate content and vitamer distribution in this study. The fruits and vegetables were selected by their availability in German supermarkets and were grouped according to their plant family. All fruits and vegetables were lyophilized and analyzed by stable isotope dilution assay (SIDA) and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The results vary from 7.82 ± 0.17 µg/100 g in the horned melon to 271 ± 3.64 µg/100 g in the yellow passion fruit. The yellow passion fruit is a good source for meeting the recommended requirements, as just 110 g are needed to cover the recommended daily intake of 300 µg folate for adults; however, longan fruits, okras, pete beans, papayas, mangos, jack fruits, and feijoas are also good sources of folates. In conclusion, the study gives a good overview of the total folate content in a broad range of tropical fruits and vegetables and shows that some of these fruits definitely have the potential to improve the supply of this critical vitamin.

Identification of the prepared foods promising for dietary folate intake in Beijing, China

“…The folate levels in 13 fresh fruits showed a broad range of variations, with the highest being 44.58 ± 0.62 µg/100 g in lemon and lowest being 3.78 ± 0.91 µg/100 g in mandarin orange, averaging 15.50 µg/100 g (Table 4). Recently, a range of folate levels of 7.82–271 µg/100 g was reported among tropical fruits using LC‐MS/MS (Striegel et al., 2019). In this study, most of the fruits were temperate or subtropical species, indicating a significant difference in folate levels between nontropical and tropical fruits.…”

“…Moreover, because of different responses and stabilities of the folate vitamers, the microbiological assay may give inaccurate results (Ringling & Rychlik, 2017). HPLC‐MS/MS has been developed for separation and quantification of individual folate derivatives in diverse plant, animal, and food matrices, such as plant leaf (Shohag et al., 2017), tomatoes (Upadhyaya et al., 2017), cereals (Wan et al., 2019), fruits (Striegel et al., 2019), egg yolks (Sun et al., 2020), and foodstuffs (Loznjak et al., 2020; Loznjak svarc et al., 2020), and showing great advantages due to the high sensitivity and accuracy.…”

The Nutritional Potential of the Native Australian Green Plum (Buchanania obovata) Compared to Other Anacardiaceae Fruit and Nuts

“…Five varieties of mango bought in Germany contained total folate between 55.8 and 74.5 µg/100 g and the highest folate type present was 5-CH 3 -H 4 folate (5-methyltetrahydrofolate) (74). These findings show mango is a good source of natural folate vitamers (74). The USDA nutrition reports of foods in the Anacardiaceae family as raw cashew nuts 25 µg/100 g, mango 43 µg/100 g, and pistachio nuts as 51 µg/100 g (47).…”

Folate Content and Yolk Color of Hen Eggs from Different Farming Systems

“…Considering a high folate concentration, its most common sources include vegetables (especially the green ones), legumes, and certain fruits, whereas considering a high frequency of consumption of folate-rich products-it can be delivered with cereal products [ 8 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Less approved are folate-rich products of animal origin, such as liver and egg yolk.…”