ABSTRACT
In the rural region of the municipality of Viçosa, Minas Gerais, forest patches are encountered and they present a great diversity of wild and edible fruit, where wild pineapple (Ananas bracteatus (Lindl.), var. albus) is one of those of greatest occurrence. Given that, little is known about the nutritional characteristics of this fruit, the present study aimed to investigate the physical and physic-chemical characteristics, chemical composition (titratable acidity, total soluble solids, pH, moisture content, ash, protein, lipids and dietary fiber), carotenoids (a-carotene, ß-carotene, ß-cryptoxanthin and lycopene), vitamin C (AA and DHA) by HPLC-DAD, vitamin E (a-, ß-, ?-, d-, tocopherols and tocotrienols) by HPLC-fluorescence, and minerals (P, K, Ca, Mg, Cu, Fe, Zn, Mn, Na, Cr, Se and Mo) by ICP-AES. Fruits showed a moisture content average of 78.5 g 100g-1, 16.3 ° Brix of soluble solids, titratable acidity equal to 1.71 g 100g-1 of citric acid, 1.66 g 100g-1 of dietary fiber, 1.41 g 100 g-1 of lipids and caloric density of 83.15 kcal 100g-1. We considered it a source of carbohydrates (12.82 g 100g-1), proteins (4.79 g 100g-1) and Zn (0.98 mg 100g-1); a good source of vitamin C (18.70 mg 100g-1); and an excellent source of Cu (0.48 mg 100g-1), Fe (2.05 mg 100g-1), Mn (8.87 mg 100g-1) and Mo (0.15 mg 100g-1).
Index terms
Wild fruit; nutritional value; vitamins; nutrients