RESUMO
Carotenoid-rich fractions (CRF) from pulp and peel of a new variety of purple tomato were investigated in comparison to a Red Cherry variety regarding carotenoids characterization, antioxidant capacity, and inhibition of proliferation of four tumor cell lines. CRF from peel of Purple tomato contains lutein, lycopene, and ß-carotene up to 6, 1.5, and 2.5 times more than that of Red Cherry and it exhibited the highest antioxidant activity at 400 µg/mL, reaching 82% and 97% in DPPH and ABTSâ¢+ assays, respectively. Besides that, the Purple peel showed the highest scavenging lipoperoxides capacity as well as displayed the highest ferric reducing antioxidant power compared to the other CRF. In turn, the Red Cherry pulp CRF showed the highest antiproliferative activity against four tumor cell lines (MCF-7, NCI-H460, HeLa, and HepG2) at non-toxic concentrations. High concentration of neurosporene, and lycopene in Red Cherry pulp CRF show to be related to the good antiproliferative activity found on it. Therefore, this new variety of nutrient-rich purple tomato could be explored as well as the commercial variety Red Cherry, since both are good sources of dietary carotenoids with health-promoting properties.
RESUMO
The influence of ultrasound-assisted extraction of phytochemicals from Ardisia compressa Kunth on the antioxidant capacity was investigated. The factors evaluated were: ultrasound extraction time (10, 20 and 30 min), ethanol concentration (0, 35, 70 %) and solid/liquid ratio (1:4, 1:8 and 1:12 g mL-1). The L9 (3)3 array was applied, and the DPPH⢠scavenging capacity of treatments was evaluated to obtain optimal extraction conditions. Finally, the phytochemicals were characterized by high-performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS). Ten minutes of ultrasound extraction using 0 % of ethanol and solid/liquid ratio 1:12 g mL-1 were the optimal conditions of extraction. The HPLC-ESI-MS analysis revealed the presence of gluconic acid, quercetin-3-O-glucoside, isorhamnetin-3-O-rutinoside, demethylligstroside, ponicidin, 4-caffeoylquinic acid, rosmarinic acid, and galloyl-hexoside. The optimal ultrasound-assisted extraction conditions were defined by applying the Taguchi methodology. The phytochemicals identified in A. compressa fruits suggest its use as a potential source of bioactive compounds.