a b s t r a c tAraçá or strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum Sabine) is an attractive tasty small fruit native to temperate zones of Brazil. In this study, functional chemical constituents and the nutraceutical and therapeutic potential of aqueous and acetone extracts of red and yellow accessions of araçá were characterised. While carotenes, ascorbic acid, and anthocyanins were present as minor constituents, araçá fruit presented high levels of phenolic compounds (up to 768 mg 100 g À1 fresh fruit pulp, ffp), particularly (À)-epicatechin (up to 2.7 mg g À1 ffp), which were in general more efficiently extracted with acetone. Abundance of phenolic compounds was positively correlated with antioxidant activity, antimicrobial and antiproliferative effects.

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The quality changes and the concentrations of tocopherols and c-oryzanol, during successive steps of rice bran oil refining (RBO), were studied. For this purpose, samples of crude, degummed, neutralized, bleached, dewaxed and deodorized RBO were taken from an industrial plant and analyzed. The moisture, pH, acidity, peroxide value and unsaponifiable matter, were determined. The fatty acid composition was evaluated by GC, and the concentrations of tocopherols and c-oryzanol were determined using HPLC with fluorescence and UV-Vis detection, respectively. To identify c-oryzanol components, fractions of the HPLC eluant were collected and analyzed using mass spectrometry. Oil refining reduced the peroxide value and acidity to 1 and 3% of the values obtained in crude RBO, respectively. The fatty acid composition were not significantly altered during refining. The concentrations of the tocopherols in RBO followed the order a [ (b ? c) [ d.The total concentration of tocopherols was 26 mg/100 g, and remained practically unaltered during refining. Up to nine components were distinguished in c-oryzanol. After collecting the elution fractions, up to six components were identified by electrospray mass spectrometry. Refining reduced the total concentration of c-oryzanol to 2% of its initial value.