Study on bioactivities of hylocereus undatus seed extracts: Antioxidant activities and determination of its essential fatty acids

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content, total flavonoid of seeds of Hylocereus undatus and the fatty acids composition of of H. undatus seed oil by Gas Chromatography (GC) combined with Mass Spectrometry (MS). The ethanolic extracts of Hylocereus undatus seeds showed significantly high (p <0.05) total phenolic (33.96 mg GAE/100 g dry weight) and flavonoid (11.5 mg RUE /100g dry weight). DPPH assay showed similar trend reflecting that Hylocereus undatus seeds had potent (p<0.05) scavenging capacities (44.15%). GC-MS analysis revealed that the major components of H. undatus seed oil was linoleic acid (40.8%), followed by oleic acid (22.88%) and palmitic acid (17.51%), all the fatty acids were expressed in methyl esters. This finding indicates that H. undatus seed oil is an excellent source of essential fatty acids including omega-6 (linoleic acid) and omega-9 (oleic acid). Keywords: Hylocereus undatus seeds, Rutin, DPPH, essential fatty acids, seed oil, linoleic acid, omega-6.