Nutritional importance of some dry fruits based on their phenolic acids

Abstract

Dry fruits are an important group of agricultural and confectionary commodities being used since human civilizations all over the world because flavor, taste and nutritional requirements. Healing of various physical, emotional and psychological problems by dry fruits has been reported in ancient traditional medical system (Ayurvda). High performance liquid chromatographic analysis was performed to estimate phenolic acids in eleven dry fruits viz., Date palm (Phoenix reclinata) Cardamom (Ellettaria cardamomum), Almond (Terminalia catappa), Coconut (Cocas micifera), Groundnut (Arachis hypogea), Kishmish (Vitis venifera), Cashewnut (Anacardium occidentale), Pista (Pistachia vera), Makhana (Euryale ferox), Chiraungi (Beuchanania latifoli) and resins of higher plants commonly used in India. Among several peaks of phenolic acids, only eight could be identified viz., tannic, gallic, caffeic, vanillic, O-coumaric, ferulic, cinnamic and salicylic acids on the basis of their retention time with standard compounds and co-chromatography. Some phenolic acids were present in rich amount in some of the dry fruits. Tannic, ferulic and salicylic acids were found in high amount in Pista. Gallic and vanillic acids were maximum in chiraungi, while caffeic and O-coumaric acids were righ in resin and almond, respectively. Cinnamic acid was maximum in groundnut. The role of these phenolic acids has been discussed in the light of their several nutritional related to human health.