Comparative account of vitamin C contents, antioxidant properties and iron contents of minor fruits in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka is a habitat of diverse fruit varieties; nevertheless 95% of them are underutilized by people due to unawareness of their nutritional values and health aspects, and hence become ‘minor fruits’. This study was aimed on revealing vitamin C, iron and antioxidant contents of 29 varieties of minor fruits (MFs) with the comparison of the same with three best commonly consumable fruits (CFs), namely Carica papaya, Mangifera indica and Psidium guajava. Ascorbic acid (Asc), dehydroascorbic acid (DAsc), vitamin C (TC), phenolic (TP), flavonoid (TF), iron (Fe) contents and antioxidant capacities (AOCs) of fruits were determined using standard methods. The results of mean Asc, DAsc, TC, TP, TF and Fe contents in 100 gm of MFs ranged from 3.1 to 121.5 mg, 1.2 to 70.7 mg, 6.6 to 136.1 mg, 24.9 to 1613.3 mg Gallic acid equivalent, 6.2 to 228.0 mg Quercetin equivalents and 0.2 to 4.9 mg respectively. DPPH and Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) assays were used for AOCs and variation of IC50 values in a DPPH assay was 1.2 to 245.4 mg/ml whereas FRAP values ranged from 9.6 to 486.7 μmol FeSO4/gm. Among the studied minor fruits, Melastoma malabathricum (Maha bovitiya/ Malabar melastome) is found as the best respect to all considered parameters. As a conclusion, it can be stated that, the Sri Lankan minor fruits are good alternatives to the common fruits as they are recognized as good source of vitamin C, iron and higher content of antioxidants. As an outcome, Sri Lankan minor fruits can be promoted as alternatives to common fruits and as source of revenue for national economy.