Abstract Malpighia emarginata D.C is an important crop of Brazil and significant source of antioxidant active compounds with notable health effects. The purpose of this work was to study three varieties of acerola (Malpighia emarginata D.C) at green unripe stage of maturity from the São Francisco Valley of Northeast Brazil. The fruits were evaluated for physico-chemical composition, bioactive compounds, through spectrophotometric analysis and liquid chromatography, as well as the profile of macro and micro minerals and antioxidant capacity. The fruits presented satisfactory results in physico-chemical quality parameters. HPLC-DAD phenolic profile analysis identified kaempferol-3-glucoside (32.68 mg/100 g), p-coumaric acid (28.87 mg/100 g) and isorhamnetin (11.41 mg/100 g) as the major compounds, mainly in the variety of Flor Branca (FB). The results obtained from the profiles of sugars and organic acids were similar among the varieties. The minerals were excellent sources of the elements of K, Ca, Mg and Mn. Moreover, FB variety represents higher antioxidant capacity in ABTS·+ (8613.54 μM Trolox/g) and ORAC (2454.42 μM Trolox/g). Thus, the results show the potential to be applied for variety selection and utilization programs based on their specific nutritive characters, contributing to the development of new products.

Abstract The objective of this work was to evaluate the possible modifications due to industrial processing in the volatiles (HS-SPME/GC-MS), bioactive compounds (content total, and phenolic profile by UFLC-DAD) and antioxidant capacity (ABTS, DPPH, FRAP, ORAC) of fresh and processed mango pulp with addition of additives, pasteurized, and pasteurized with additives. The physicochemical characteristics of the samples were evaluated. All parameters were significantly (p≤0.05) affected by processing. According to the PCA analysis, the stability of the samples was influenced by the thermal processing and the work clearly demonstrated the separation between the analyzed samples as a function of the effect of thermal processing. It is concluded that industrial processing, although important for the preservation of useful life and maintenance of the microbiological quality of mango pulp, influence the functional and aromatic properties, causing a significant reduction in the volatile and bioactive compounds, which can negatively influence the acceptance of the processed product by consumers.