Abstract The oil from the fruit of peach palm or Pupunha (Bactris gasipaes) is an example of a material with low-cost and good antioxidant capacity. However, Conventional methods for measuring oil content are time-consuming, labor-intensive and use toxic chemicals. In this sense, the aim of this study was evaluated fast and non-destructive spectroscopy methods, such as Near Infrared (NIR) and Time-Domain Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (TD-NMR) (CPMG and ROSE pulse sequences), to quantify the oil content in pupunha flours collected in the amazon forest. For this, 93 samples were used and the results showed three distinct levels of oil in the samples: high, medium and low oil content. Furthermore, the determination coefficient (R2) reached values of 0.92, 0.92 and 0.70 for NIR, TD-NMR (ROSE) and TD-NMR (CPMG), respectively. Therefore, the NIR and TD-NMR (ROSE) methods demonstrate a higher prediction efficiency, with the NIR achieving 100% classification of the samples.

Ácidos graxos tem grande importância metabólica e estrutural. Avaliação da composição de ácidos graxos em pimentas é ainda incompleta. Polpas e sementes de seis variedades de pimentas do gênero Capsicum foram avaliadas, neste trabalho, em relação a sua composição de ácidos graxos. Foram identificados 25 ácidos graxos diferentes nas amostras, incluindo alguns com número ímpar de átomos de carbono. Os ácidos graxos mais abundantes foram palmítico (16:0), oleico (18:1n-9) e linoleico (18:2n-6). As relações poli-insaturados:saturados foram elevadas para todas as amostras, em razão das elevadas quantidades de ácidos poli-insaturados, principalmente o ácido linoleico. Nas polpas as relações de omega-6/omega-3 variaram de 1,28 a 4,33, e foram avaliadas como relativamente adequadas, tendo em vista que, na dieta humana, relações entre 0,25 e 1,0 são consideradas altamente adequadas. Nas sementes, os níveis de n-3 foram muito mais baixos do que os níveis de n-6, que foram bem elevados, resultando em baixas proporções de omega-6/omega-3, variando entre 74,2-279,6. Análise de componentes principais (ACP) explicou 93,49% da variância total dos dados. Considerando as relações poli-insaturados: saturados e omega-6/omega-3, nossos dados sugerem que entre as pimentas do gênero Capsicum avaliadas, neste trabalho, o pimentão e a pimenta habanero laranja apresentaram as melhores características nutricionais em relação à composição de ácidos graxos.

Fatty acids have a great metabolic and structural importance. Evaluation of fatty acid composition of peppers is still incomplete. Pulps and seeds from six varieties of the genus Capsicum were evaluated in this work with respect to their contents in fatty acids. A total of 25 different fatty acids, including some with odd number of carbons were identified in the samples. The most abundant fatty acids were palmitic (16:0), oleic (18:1n-9) and linoleic (18:2n-6) acids. The polyunsaturated:saturated fatty acid (PUFA/SFA) ratios for all peppers were high due to the elevated amounts of polyunsaturated acids, particularly linoleic acid. In the pulps, the omega-6/omega-3 ratios ranging from 1.28 to 4.33, were relatively adequate if one considers that ratios between 0.25 and 1.0 in the human diet are regarded as highly appropriate. In the seeds, the levels of omega-3 were very low whereas the levels of omega-6 were high, leading to very inadequate omega-6/omega-3 ratios ranging from 74.2 to 279.6. Principal component analysis (PCA) explained 93.49% of the total variance of the data. Considering the PUFA/SFA ratio and omega-6/omega-3 ratio, our data suggest that, among the peppers of the genus Capsicum evaluated in this work, the bell pepper and orange habanero pepper present the best nutritional characteristics concerning fatty acid composition.