Physicochemical attributes and functional properties of flowers of Brazilian feijoa genotypes

Abstract

The objective of this work was to characterize entire flowers of the feijoa (Acca sellowiana) genotypes 'Alcântara', 'Helena', 'Mattos', 'Nonante', and the accession 2316 for dry matter, total antioxidant activity (TAA), and the contents of soluble solids, ascorbic acid, total anthocyanins, total flavonoids, and total phenolic compounds (TPC), as well as for the petal surface areas and colors. The TAA was quantified by the ABTS and DPPH methods. Flowers of the accession 2316 and of the cultivars Alcântara and Helena showed the highest contents of anthocyanins and flavonoids, as well as the highest values of TPC and TAA. The feijoa genotypes cultivated in Southern Brazil show high contents of soluble solids and represent a natural source of antioxidants.

Bioactive compounds in gladiolus flowers

“…Vitamin C content was determined by the spectrophotometric method, using 2.4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (2.4-DNPH) (Amarante et al, 2019). We used 1 g of the sample macerated in 50 mL of oxalic acid (0.5%).…”

“…The flowers were ground and homogenized with an extracting solution (ethanol 95%: HCl 1.5 N -85:15, v/v) and stored for 12 hours at 4°C to determine the total anthocyanin and flavonoid contents. The samples were filtered with a paper filter, and absorbance was measured in a spectrophotometer at the electromagnetic wavelength (λ) of 535 nm for anthocyanins and 374 nm for flavonoids (Amarante et al, 2019). The results were expressed as mg per 100 g -1 of fresh matter, calculated by Equation 1:…”

“…Such an increase in flower consumption is mainly attributed to the beauty of its shapes, colors, and aromas, ensuring sophistication to elaborated dishes (Fernandes et al, 2016;Acikgoz, 2017;Albán et al, 2018). Research studies also point out that flowers have high nutritional value, being considered functional and nutraceutical (Skrajda, 2017;Amarante et al, 2019).…”

“…Many flowers, such as nasturtium, pansies, marigold, fuchsia (Benvenuti et al, 2016), feijoa (Amarante et al, 2019), pot marigold, rose, elder, starflower, and mauve (Chitrakar et al, 2019), have medicinal properties due to the presence of bioactive compounds. Among the bioactive compounds, phenols stand out for their high antioxidant capacity, besides their minerals and vitamins (González-Barrio et al, 2018), contributing to improving the quality of life (Gonçalves et al, 2019;Suram, 2020).…”

Influence of some environmental factors on the feijoa (Acca sellowiana [Berg] Burret): A review

“…For humans, the flower petals are edible and contain, according to the variety, high concentrations of anthocyanins, flavonoids, total phenols, increased antioxidant activity and high soluble solids content (Amarante et al, 2019). Magri et al (2020) found that the petals attain the highest peak of polyphenols, anthocyanins and ascorbic acid in the F2 state, when the petals continue to open and the anthers and filaments have a dark red color, according to the BBCH scale (Ramírez & Kallarackal, 2018b).…”