Contenuto in tocoferoli nei frutti di Passiflora morifolia Masters

The genus Passiflora (Passifloraceae) includes about 500 herbaceous and shrubby species, indigenous to Brazil and distributed in the warm temperate and tropical regions of the New World. Several species are grown for their edible fruits or exotic flowers; some are used in folk medicine in countries of origin. Passiflora morifolia Mast. is a climbing species, weed, fast-growing, which is widespread in Italy too. The ripe fruit is a blue berry, the pulp is orange and contains many seeds. Since the pulp of the fruit showed a significant antioxidant activity in the preliminary test with DPPH, it seemed interesting to evaluate, in this fruit, the content of tocopherols, natural antioxidants that are of interest as "radical scavenger" and protect cell membranes from oxidative processes. Fully ripe fruit, blue in colour, were used. The pulp, separated from the seeds, was lyophilized. Tocopherols were extracted from the pulp and seeds, with hexane, after cold saponification. The determination was carried out by HPLC with spectrofluorimetric detection. Tocopherols α, β, γ, and d were determined both in the pulp and in the seeds. α-Tocopherol was found in greater amount, as often happens in plants. Significant amount of β-tocopherol is also been found, which instead is more rare. The presence of significant amounts of tocopherols can make this fruit interesting, both from the nutritional perspective and as a source of Vitamin E. Further studies, however, are needed to clarify other active principles which characterize this fruit.