Food Science and Quality Management ISSN 2224-6088 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0557 (Online) Vol.28, 2014
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Sugar and alkaloid profiles of serendipity berry (Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii) Abiodun, O. A.*, Olosunde, O.O., Adegbite, J.A. and Omolola, O.A. Department of Food Science and Technology, Osun State Polytechnic, P.M.B. 301, Iree, Osun State. Nigeria. *Corresponding author email address: funmiabiodun2003@yahoo.com Abstract The study evaluates the chemical and physico-chemical composition of serendipity berry (Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii). The berries were separated into seed coat, gel and seed. The sugar and alkaloid profiles of the three components of these berries were analyzed. The predominant sugars were fructose and glucose. Fructose and glucose ranged from 0.61 to 3.47 mg/100g and 0.35 to 3.15 mg/100g respectively. The gel had higher sugar contents than the seed and the peel. Soladulcine was the predominant alkaloid in the seed and peel. Total alkaloids were 1.09 mg/100g in seed, 0.18 mg/100g in peel and traces of emetine in the gel. The alkaloid contents of the seeds were higher than the peels and the gel. Generally, the alkaloid contents in the three components of the berry were very low and could not cause any health problem when consumed. Serendipity berry is a promising fruit which could find its use in the production of juice and wine in the food industry. Keywords: Alkaloid, Fructose, Glucose, Serendipity berry, Sugar Introduction Fruits are the mature ovaries of plants with their seeds. They are the fleshy part of a plant, usually eaten alone or served as a dessert. Fruits are high in organic acids and sugar. The nutritive value of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other compounds contained in fruits and vegetables is extremely important to the diet (Vaclavik and Christian, 2008). Consumption of a diet high in fruits and vegetables increases antioxidant concentration in blood and body tissues and potentially protects against oxidative damage to cells and tissues (Yahia, 2010). Serendipity berry (Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii) is a tropical rainforest vine. The genus Dioscoreophyllum belongs to the tribe, Tinosporeae comprising D. cumminsii and D. volkensii (Oselebe and Nwankiti, 2005). Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii is a tropical dioecious rainforest vine. It grows in humid and heavily shaded under storey vegetation of closed forest, from May to October. The fruit, serendipity berry, contains a protein sweetener called monellin that could replace sugar in foods for diabetics and dieters (Inglett, 1976; Oselebe and Nwankiti, 2005). Monellin is a sweet protein from the fruit of "serendipity berry" (Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii), a tropical plant native to West Africa (Wlodawer and Hodgson, 1975). Serendipity berry is among the unpopular and under-utilized fruit found in the forest towards the end of the raining season. Fruits such as Plum, peach, quince, berries and choke cherries had been studied (Walkowiak-Tomczak et al., 2008; Hajilou and Fakhimrezaei, 2011 Rop et al., 2011; Zatylny et al., 2005). The properties of serendipity berries have not been widely investigated like other fruits therefore; there is limited information on the nutritive values of the fruit. However, this work evaluates the sugar and alkaloid profiles of serendipity berry components. Materials and Methods Materials Serendipity berries were obtained from a farm at Esa-Odo, Osun State, Nigeria in October 2012. The berries were washed and separated into peel, gel and seeds Methods Sugar Profile Determination Fifty milligram of sample was extracted by ethanol. The ethanol-extracted sample was dried overnight at 80oC and then re-suspended in a 50 mM sodium acetate buffer (pH = 5.2). Starch in the sample was then digested to glucose by incubating the pellets for 12 h at 57C with 400 units/ml a-amylase and 2 units/ml amyloglucosidase in 50 mM sodium acetate buffer. After centrifugation at 4,000× g for 5 min., triplicate aliquots of 200 ml of supernatant from each sample was brought to a final volume of 1 ml and was quantified with glucose Trinder reagent (Sigma Chemical Co.). Qualitative analysis of ethanol-extracted sugars was accomplished by methods described by Ashworth et al. (1993). Ethanol was evaporated from 0.5 ml extract of each sample. Sugars were re-dissolved in 1 ml deionized water and filtered through a 0.45-µm nylon membrane were separated into their component peaks by injecting 25 µl each sample into the Gas chromatography equipment.
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Alkaloid Profile Determination Alkaloid extraction was carried out as described by Wink (1993). 2 g flour material was homogenized in 30 ml 0.5 N HCl. After 30 min at room temperature, the homogenate was centrifuged for 10 min 5,000g. For quantitative work, the residue was re-suspended in 0.5 N HCl and centrifuged again. Both supernatants were then pooled and adjusted to pH 12-14 with NH4OH (25%). Alkaloids were extracted by solid-phase extraction using Extrelut column (Merck, Darmstadt). Total alkaloids were eluted with CH2Cl2 and the solvent evaporated in vacuo. The alkaloid extract was dissolved in CH2Cl2 and applied into a GC apparatus (Hewlett Packard Model 6890 series). Experimental conditions for capillary GC analysis were developed under the following conditions. Capillary column HP-5 (Crosslinked 5% phenylmethylsiloxane, 50 m x 0.32 mm (i.d.), with 0.17 µm film thickness, model no. HP 19091J-015), injector temperature 250ºC, carrier gas helium (1 ml/min), split ratio 1/20, injection volume 0.2 µl, and mass range (m/z) 20-440. GC oven temperature was kept at 120ºC for 2 min, programmed to 300ºC at a rate of 6ºC/min, and kept constant at 300ºC for 10 min. Statistical analysis All analyses were carried out in duplicate. calculated.
The mean and standard deviation of the data obtained were
Results and Discussion Fig. 1 showed the serendipity fruits. The fruit consists of lots of berries in a bunch and were divided into three components; the seed, peel and gel. The sugar contents of serendipity berry are shown in Table 1. Fructose and glucose are the predominant sugars in the berry. Fructose and glucose ranged from 0.61 to 3.47 mg/100g and 0.35 to 3.15 mg/100g respectively. Fructose contents were higher than other sugars in the three components of the berry. The highest sucrose content (0.99 mg/100g) was observed in the gel. Ertekina et al. (2006) and Walkowiak-Tomczak et al. (2008) reported sucrose, glucose and fructose, organic acids as the major components of plum fruit. Likewise, Ozilgen (2011) observed higher values for glucose (36.9g/100g), fructose (39.4g/100g) and sucrose (1g/100g) in sultana fruit bars. Sucrose contents ranging from 8.86-21.28g/100g was reported for cultivars of chestnut fruits (Erturk et al., 2006). The levels of these sugars in the berry were low when compared to other fruits. Other sugars detected in insignificant amount were ribose, xylose, arabinose, rhamnose, maltose and lactose Fig. 2. Total sugar contents of serendipity berry are presented in Fig. 3. The highest total sugar in the berry was in the gel (7.62mg/100g) while the lowest value was in the seed (1.05 mg/100g). These values were low when compared to15.2 – 30.0% in pineapple (Othman, 2011) and 10.32 to 22.79 g/100g in chestnut cultivars (Erturk et al., 2006). But the total sugar value for the gel was higher than that of palmyra palm fruits (4.47-5.62 g/100g) as reported by Ali et al. (2010). Serendipity berry was low in sugar contents and was in agreement with the reports of Inglett (1976) and Oselebe and Nwankiti (2005). The intense sweetner in the berry was observed to be protein called monelin. The degree of consumer acceptance of fruit was reported to be significantly related with total soluble solids of the fruit (Crisosto and Crisosto, 2005; Hajilou and Fakhimrezaei, 2011). Therefore, serendipity berry could be recommended to people requiring low sugar fruit such as diabetic patients. Alkaloid contents of serendipity berries are shown in Table 2. Solasodine, timatidenol and soladulcine are the major alkaloids in serendipity berry. Soladulcine was the predominant alkaloid in the seed and peel. Tomatidenol was not detected in the peel but all the alkaloids were not detected in the gel except a trace of emetine indicating that the gel is suitable for consumption. Other alkaloids detected in the peels and seeds of serendipity berries are shown in Fig. 4. The total alkaloid contents ranged from 0.0006-1.09mg/100g (Fig. 5). Although the seeds had higher alkaloid contents than other components but the value was very high when compared to the alkaloid contents in mango 0.01 mg/100 g (Fowomola, 2010) and 0.13-0.17 % in wild mango fruits (Joseph and Aworh, 1991). The alkaloid contents in the peel (0.18 mg/100g) was within the range reported for wild mango peels (Joseph and Aworh, 1991) and lower than 5g/kg in the pulp of raphia palm fruit (Ogbuagu, 2008). Zulkifli et al. (2012) observed the presence of alkaloids in the peels of Malus sylvestris and Citrus sinensis. Aguzue et al. (2012) also reported the presence of alkaloids in the fruits of Borassus aethiopum, Borassus flabellifer and Balanite aegyptiaca, Phoenix dactylifera and Tamarindus Indica. No traces of alkaloid was detected in guava peels and fruits (Pandey and Shweta, 2012). High alkaloid contents cause toxicity when ingested by human being.. Conclusion The results revealed low sugar and alkaloid contents serendipity berry. The alkaloids may not cause any problem to the consumers and the fruit may be taken by people requiring low sugar fruit. Serendipity berries may also be useful in the food industry for production of juice and other products.
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References Aguzue, O.,C., Akanji, F. T., Tafida, M. A., Kamal, M. J. and Abdulahi, S. H. (2012). Comparative chemical constituents of some desert fruits in Northern Nigeria. Archives of Applied Science Research, 2012, 4 (2):10611064 Ali, A., Alhadji, D., Tchiegang, C. and Saïdou, C. (2010). Physico-chemical properties of palmyra palm (Borassus aethiopum Mart.) fruits from Northern Cameroon. African Journal of Food Science 4(3): 115-119 Ashworth, E. N., Stirm, V.E. and J.J. Volenec, J.J. (1993). Seasonal variation in soluble sugars and starch within woody stems of Cornus sericea L. Tree. Physiology 13:379–388. Crisosto C.H., and Crisosto G.M. (2005). Relationship between ripe soluble solids concentration (RSSC) and consumer acceptance of high and low acid melting flesh peach and nectarine (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) cultivars. Postharvest. Biol. Tec, 38:239-246. Ertekina C., Gozlekcib S., Kabasa O., Sonmezc S., Akinci I., 2006. Some physical, pomological and nutritional properties of two plum (Prunus domestica L.) cultivars. J. Food Eng. 75, 4, 508-514. Erturk, U, Mert, C and Soyh, A (2006). Chemical composition of fruits of some important chestnut cultivars. Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology, 49 (2): 183-188 Faruya J., Takafumi Y. & Kiyohara H., (1983). Alkaloid production in cultured cells of Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii. Phytochemistry, 22: 1671-1673. Fowomola, M. A. (2010). some nutrients and antinutrients contents of mango (Magnifera indica) seed. African Journal of Food Science 4(8): 472 - 476 Hajilou, J. and Fakhimrezaei, S. 2011. Evaluation of fruit physicochemical properties in some peach cultivars. Research in Plant Biology, 1(5): 16-21 Inglett, G. E. and May, J. F. (1969), Serendipity Berries–Source of a New Intense Sweetener. Journal of Food Science, 34: 408–411. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2621.1969.tb12791.x Inglett, G.E. (1976). A history of sweeteners‐natural and synthetic. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. 2 (1): 207-214 Joseph, J.K. and Aworh, O.C. (1991). Chemical attributes of little known varieties of wild mango fruits (Irvingia gabonensis). Nigerian Food Journal 9: 159-166 Ogbuagu, M.C. (2008). Vitamins, phytochemicals and toxic elements in the pulp and seed of raphia palm fruits (raphia hookeri ). Fruits , 63 (5):297-302 Oselebe, H. O. and Nwankiti, O. C. (2005). Cytology of root tips of Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii (Stapf) Diel. Journal of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Extension 4 (1): 43-45 Oselebe, O.H. and Ene-Obong, E.E. (2007). Organogenesis in Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii (Stapf) Diels. Tropicultura, 2007, 25, 1, 37-43 Othman O.C (2011). Physicochemical characteristics and levels of inorganic elements in off-vine ripened pineapple (Ananas comosus L.) fruits of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. KIST Journal of Science and Technology, 1 (1): 23-30 Ozilgen S. (2011): Influence of chemical composition and environmental conditions on the textural properties of dried fruit bars. Czech J. Food Sci., 29: 539–547. Pandey, A. and Shweta (2012). Antimicrobial properties of Psidium guajava leaves, fruits and stems against various pathogens. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Research and Development 3 (11): 15-24. 85
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Penarrubia L., Kim R., Giovannoni J., Kim S.H. & Fischer R.L., 1992, Production of the sweet protein monellin in transgenic plants. Bio. Technology, 10, 5, 561-564. Rop O., Balik J., Řezniček V., Jurikova T., Škardova P., Salaš P., Sochor J., Mlček J., Kramařova D. (2011): Chemical characteristics of fruits of some selected quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) cultivars. Czech J. Food Sci., 29: 65–73. Walkowiak-Tomczak D., Reguła J., Łysiak G., 2008. Physico--chemical properties and antioxidant activity of selected plum cultivars fruit. Acta Scientiarum Polonorum, Technologia Alimentaria 7(4), 15-22. Wink, M (1993). Quinolizidine alkaloids. In: Waterman, P (ed.), Methods in plant biochemistry; Alkaloid and sulphur compounds. Academic press, London. Pp197-239 Wlodawer A. and Hodgson, K.O. (1975). Crystallization and Crystal Data of Monellin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 72, 398-9. Wlodawer, A. and Hodgson,K.O. (1975). Crystallization and Crystal Data of Monellin. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 72 (1): 398-399 Yahia, E.M. (2010). The Contribution of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption to Human Health. In: de la Rosa, L. A., Alvarez-Parrilla, E. and Gonz´alez-Aguilar, G.A. (ed). Fruit and Vegetable Phytochemicals Chemistry, Nutritional Value and Stability. Blackwell Publishing, US. Pp 3-50 Zatylny, A. M., Ziehl, W. D. and St-Pierre, R. G. 2005. Physicochemical properties of fruit of chokecherry (Prunus virginiana L.), high bush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum Marsh.), and black currant (Ribes nigrum L.) cultivars grown in Saskatchewan. Can. J. Plant Sci. 85: 425–429. Zulkifli, K. S., Abdullah, N., Abdullah, A., Aziman, N. and Kamarudin, W.S.S. (2012). Phytochemical screening and activities of hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidant of some fruit peels. The Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences, 16 (3): 309 - 317
Fig. 1: Serendipity berry fruits
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A
B
C Fig. 2: Sugar profiles of A- peel, B- seed and C- gel of serendipity berry
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Fig. 3: Total sugar contents of serendipity fruits components
A
B
C Fig. 4: Alkaloid profiles of A-Peel, B-seed and C-gel of serendipity berry fruit
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Fig. 5: Total alkaloids of serendipity fruits components Table 1: Sugar profile of serendipity fruit components Seed Fructose 0.61±0.12 Glucose 0.35±0.10 Sucrose 0.09±0.02 Mean ± Standard deviation
Peel 2.01±0.09 1.47±0.11 0.64±0.04
Gel 3.47±0.12 3.15±0.03 0.99±0.02
Table 2: Alkaloid profile of serendipity fruit components Alkaloid Solasodine Tomatidenol Soladulcidine ND- Not detected
Seed 0.15±0.10 0.24±0.08 0.68±0.02
Peel 0.02±0.01 ND 0.15±0.01
Mean ± Standard deviation
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Gel ND ND ND
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