Attalea speciosa mesocarp flour in-depth characterization and its application for the development of new bakery products
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Non-conventional food plants (NFPs) present themselves as a viable and efficient alternative for replacing the food
products we consume today. Presenting a huge nutritional, chemical, physical, and biological potential, these plants
are usually abundant and not competitors with other vegetable matrices used for human consumption.1 Attalea
speciosa (Mart. Ex Spreng - Babassu) is a palm tree from the botanical family Arecaceae found in Brazil, and its
mesocarp (BM) represents about 20.4% of the fruit and most of its application it’s in the manufacture of animal feed.2
Thus, the present work aimed to deepen the study the nutritional characterization of BM by AOAC methods; the
determination, by chromatographic methods, of free sugars (HPLC-RI), fatty acids (GC-FID), and organic acids content
(UPLC-DAD); and the study of the phenolic profile (HPLC-DAD/ESI(MS) and bioactivities (antioxidant, antimicrobial,
anti-inflammatory and cytotoxicity activities) of the hydroethanolic extracts. Furthermore, given the possible
industrial application, bakery products (bread) were developed with 12, 18, and 24% substitutions of wheat flour by
BM flour.
BM flour presented low moisture, fat, ash levels, being carbohydrates the main macronutrients, and palmitic (C16:0)
and stearic (C18:0) acids were the main fatty acids found in the sample. Regarding phenolic composition, nine
phenolic compounds were tentatively identified, six flavan-3-ols (catechin and epicatechin derivatives) and three Oglycosylated
flavonoids (quercetin derivatives). Specifically, the flavan-3-ols group represented 99% of total amount
of phenolic compounds mainly due to the presence of β-type (Epi)catechin dimer. The hydroethanolic extract of BM
showed a high antioxidant capacity to inhibit lipid peroxidation and high anti-hemolytic capacity, showing an IC50 99%
and 75% more effective than the positive control used (Trolox) in these assays, respectively. Moreover, it was able to
inhibit all the tumor cell lines tested (MCF-7, NCIH460, CaCo, and AGS), however, it showed some toxicity towards
healthy cells of PLP2 and VERO lines. The results obtained for the antibacterial activity of the BM extract were lower
when compared to the positive controls used (E211 and E224). Comparing the results obtained with 100% wheat flour
products, it was noted that the formulations with substitutions by BM presented remarkable results, providing a
reasonable increase in the PUFAs content (despite decreasing protein content), maintaining the antioxidant capacity
with lower IC50 values than the positive control used, and not presenting hepatotoxic activity (first validation of this
flour for the incorporation in food matrices). In general, the formulation B24 was the one that presented greater
similarity to the control bread (B0), relatively to the nutritional aspects, however, concerning the physical parameters
it was the one that presented bigger discrepancy, especially regarding the specific volume, texture, and the color
parameter L* (luminosity), tending for a darker and opaque coloration. All the formulations presented higher
percentages of loss of rheological characteristics in the first three days of elaboration, however, formulation B24 was
the one that presented the lowest percentage. This study presented innovative results regarding the nutritional,
chemical and bioactive characterization of both the babassu mesocarp itself and the bread made from it, showing
great potential to be applied in the food industry, however, there is still much to explore, especially in preparations
that do not yet use non-conventional ingredients.
