Evaluación del contenido de fenoles, flavonoides y fructosa de una bebida a partir de la hoja y el fruto del nopal (Opuntia ficus-indica)

Abstract

Diabetes is a chronic disease, currently presents a great challenge for its treatment and food suitable for this sector of the population. The nopal has excellent benefits that can be incorporated into healthy diets, its high concentrations of calcium, potassium, magnesium and minerals help in the bone system, its content of phenols, flavonoids, fructose and vitamin C, help in the control of high cholesterol, blood glucose levels, among others, however, is not exploited in Ecuador. This research project characterized the physicochemical properties of Ecuadorian nopal, developed an acceptable nopal beverage through sensory analysis and evaluated the phytochemical content of phenols, flavonoids and fructose by UV-VIS spectrophotometry in the developed product. For leaf and fruit, titratable acidity was 0.13 and 0.27, vitamin C was 23.6 and 22.9, Brix was 0.91 and 11.36 with a pH of 6.19 and 4.61 respectively. The result of the sensory analysis of the formulation by both extraction methods was Samples 1 (50T50N), being the most acceptable by the 40 tasters. The phenol content of the pulped and pressed beverages was 106.99 and 101.69 mgGAE per-L respectively, both samples showed significant phenol content. The flavonoid content of the pulped and pressed beverages was 18.88 and 17.19 mg QE per-L, and finally, the pH was 6.66 for the pulped beverage and 6.65 for the pressed beverage, indicating that they tend to be slightly acidic.