The chemistry of naseberry

Introduction

Naseberry (Manilkara zapotilla, Sapotaceae) is native to Central and South America. The tropical fruit tree may grow as tall as 30 m in Jamaica and it is tolerant of dry conditions.

Chemistry

Sugars

The first report of the total soluble sugars for some varieties of naseberry found between 20-25% [1] while the reducing and sucrose sugar content was 6.1-9.6% and 1.8-3.4% respectively.

A more recent study [2] on the glycemic index (GI) of fruits found that naseberry had a rating of 57 which was attributed to the high dietary fibre content 7.9%, fructose level of 5.3g and the presence of starch 0.8g per 100g portion.

Polyphenols

The fractionation [3] of a methanol extract from naseberry fruit resulted in the isolation of two new antioxidants:
methyl 4-O-galloylchlorogenate
4-O-galloylchlorogenic acid,
both with high antioxidant properties, along with eight known polyphenolic antioxidants, namely:
methyl chlorogenate,
dihydromyricetin,
quercitrin,
myricitrin,
(+)-catechin,
(-)-epicatechin,
(+)-gallocatechin,
and gallic acid.

Pigments

Alkaloids

Volatiles

References

1). R.K. Jain and S.K. Jain, Journal of Food Engineering 37 (1998) 323-330.
2). M.T.B. Guevarra and L.N. Panlasigui, Asia Pacific J Clin Nutr (2000) 9(4), 303-308.
3).J. Ma, X-D. Luo, P. Protiva, H. Yang, C. Ma, M.J. Basile, I.B. Weinstein and E.J. Kennelly, J. Nat. Prod. 2003, 66, 983-986.

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Created and maintained by Prof. Robert J. Lancashire,
The Department of Chemistry, University of the West Indies,
Mona Campus, Kingston 7, Jamaica.

Created January 2005. Links checked and/or last modified 11th January 2005.
URL http://wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm/lectures/naseberry.html