Pachira aquatica (Malvaceae): An unconventional food plant with food, technological, and nutritional potential to be explored.

Pachira aquatica (Malvaceae) is an unconventional food plant (UFP) native to Mexico and found all over Brazil, where it is commonly known as monguba. It has an arboreal shape, exotic flowers, and a fruit similar to cocoa with several seeds. Although its main application is in urban ornamentation and folk medicine, monguba's fruit has a great potential for use in the food, pharmacology, cosmetic, and bioenergy industry, mainly due to its oil's characteristics. This review aims to compile the nutritional composition, bioactive and antioxidant activities, and technological and nutritional potential of monguba's seed, leaf, and fruit pericarp. It reviews studies of different databases between January 2018 and October 2021. Monguba seeds are rich in lipids, proteins, and minerals; the bark is rich in fiber; and all parts of the fruit have bioactive compounds. Discussing the use of UFP is a way of finding new alternative food sources, usually discarded, offering products with high nutritional value allied to technological and consumption potential, such as the monguba fruit.

Antioxidant activity of α and ß-amyrin isolated from Myrcianthes pungens leaves.

Brazil has a great variety of native plants which could be explored and among them guabiju (Myrcianthes pungens) stands out. Thus, this study consisted of isolating pentacyclic triterpenes, α and ß-amyrin from guajibu leaves, and determine the antioxidant activity.The leaves were dried, pulverized and submitted to a dynamic maceration process with ethanol 96° GL, concentrated to obtain crude leaf extract (CLE). CLE was eluted with dichloromethane until total depletion, resulting in a dichloromethane fraction (FRDicl) which was concentrated and analyzed by GC/MS and NMR. The result of the chemical analysis revealed the presence of pentacyclic triterpenes of oleanane (ß-amyrin), and ursane (α-amyrin) groups. The ß-carotene bleaching method revealed a high antioxidant activity for the CLE as well as for FRDicl. The antioxidant protection equivalent to the trolox was of 137 and 129%, respectively at 500 µg/mL. The antioxidant potential of FRDicl can be explained by the presence of α and ß-amyrins.

Antioxidant Activity of Agaricus brasiliensis Basidiocarps on Different Maturation Phases.

Different maturation phases of basidiocarp could affect the bioactivity and concentration of some active substances. A. brasiliensis Wasser et al. (A. blazei Murrill) has shown antitumor activity that could be related to the antioxidant activity. However there is no information of the best basidiocarp maturation phase for extracting antioxidant substances in order to determine the moment of harvesting in mushroom cultivation. The objective of this work was to evaluate the antioxidant activity of A. brasiliensis strains on different basidiocarp maturation phases. The best condition for extraction of A. brasiliensis antioxidants is with methanol as solvent at 60 °C for 60 min. Strains with closed basidiocarp have higher antioxidant activity than with opened basidiocarp. Antioxidant activity varies in each strain. It was concluded that A. brasiliensis is a natural source of antioxidant compounds. Also there is higher antioxidant activity in closed than opened caps and consequently higher functional activity. It reinforces the synergic action among different A. brasiliensis compounds as a functional food and the importance of further investigation for isolation and characterization of antioxidant substances of A. brasiliensis. It also determines the best harvest period in order to obtain the highest antioxidant activity from basidiocarp.