Sri Lanka is rich in a wide diversity of fruits, but many are underutilized by the people in Sri Lanka despite their nutritional value. This is mainly due to little awareness of the palatability of many fruits and hence low popularity in the market. The present study aimed at providing comparative data on the main biochemical and nutritional parameters of thirty-seven (37) species of fruits grown in Sri Lanka, including 22 underutilized fruits and 15 commonly consumed fruits. The main parameters of the comparison were the contents of ascorbic acid (AA), total vitamin C (TVC), total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), total iron (Fe), and antioxidant capacities (ACs). The mean AA, TVC, TPC, TFC, and Fe contents in 100 g of fresh edible portions of fruits ranged from 2.0 to 185.0 mg, 8.1 to 529.6 mg, 12.9 to 2701.7 mg gallic acid equivalent, 0.2 to 117.5 mg quercetin equivalents, and 0.1 to 1.1 mg, respectively. The IC50 values in a DPPH assay varied between 0.8 to 1856.7 mg/mL and FRAP values in a FRAP assay ranged from 4.2 to 2070 μmol FeSO4/g in the studied fruits. Fruits were ranked based on the levels of the abovementioned biochemical properties. Using this ranking, 12 of the top 15 fruits were underutilized. Phyllanthus emblica (Indian gooseberry) is at the top of these underutilized fruits, and Psidium guajava (guava) is the best among commonly consumed fruits. These results indicate that underutilized fruits in Sri Lanka can be recommended as high quality and low-cost alternatives for securing nutritional requirements. Hence, underutilized fruits can be promoted as healthy additional fruits in Sri Lanka.

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 ?mol 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.