Agronomía Colombiana (Aug 2012)
Lipophilic antioxidant activity of guava fruit varieties Palmira ICA I, Regional Roja and Regional Blanca in four ripening stages
Abstract
We determined the lipophilic antioxidant activity and β-carotene content with HPLC-UV in guava fruit Psidium guajava L.) varieties Palmira ICA I, Regional Roja and Regional Blanca in the ripening stages: green, semi-ripe, mature and senescent. It was established that the β-carotene content and lipophilic antioxidant activity increased during the ripening process up to the climacteric maximum and decreased during senescence; lipophilic antioxidant activity being higher in the varieties Palmira ICA I (13.06 μmol α-tocoferol/g fruit) and regional roja (14.08 μmol a-tocopherol/g fruit) and lower in the regional blanca variety (7.04 μmol a-tocopherol/g fruit), while β-carotene content was highest in the regional roja variety (85.26 Eq. retinol/100 g fruit) followed by the varieties Palmira ICA I (10.53 Eq. retinol/100 g fruit) and regional blanca (5.78 Eq. retinol/100 g fruit). The best correlation between lipophilic antioxidant activity and β-carotene content was observed in the ‘regional roja’ (r² = 0.830), while the varieties Palmira ICA I and regional blanca showed no correlation