L Bidyalakshmi
National Institute of Nutrition-ICMR, India
Title: Nutrient composition and antioxidant activity of Rhus semialata, an underutilised fruit of North East India
Biography
Biography: L Bidyalakshmi
Abstract
Underutilized foods have major contribution in the food security, nutrition, health, economic and environmental services. Fruits of Rhus semialata are underutilized foods which are grown and consumed in north eastern India. It has great application in the traditional medicine to cure various ailments. The study was carried out to determine the proximate composition, mineral content, vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids, antioxidant activity and total polyphenol content in the fruit. R. semialata fruit found to have 8.13% protein, 16.70% fat, 2.86% ash, 44.91% total dietary fibre, 24.62% carbohydrate. Minerals such as Fe, Ca, Zn, Mg, Mn, Cu and P were 1.45, 183, 1.45, 89.32, 0.65, 0.51 and 276 mg/100 g respectively. Vitamin content of R. semialata was 13.58 mg of ascorbic acid, 0.16 mg of B6, 0.161 mg of B5 and 0.628 mg of carotenoids in 100 g of edible portion. Sulphur containing amino acids were found to be limiting amino acids with a score of 65. Linoleic acid was the major fatty acid (48%) with total saturated fatty acids of 35.9% and total unsaturated fatty acid of 64.1%. IC 50 values of R. semialata fruit showed 7.5 mg/ml in DPPH assay, 1226 mmol in FRAP assay, 229 µmol ascorbic acid equivalent for water soluble extracts and 100 µmol trolox equivalent for lipid soluble extract in superoxide anion radicle scavenging assay with a total polyphenol content of 3.1 g GAE. Considering the presence of both primary and secondary metabolites, R. semialata could be a potential underutilized food source in terms of nutrients and phytonutrient application.
