Phenolic compounds and carotenoids in pumpkin fruit and related traditional products

Abstract

Pumpkin fruit is used in a diet since ancient times especially in rural communities. The major contributory factors of nutritional and medicinal value of pumpkins are carotenoids, polysaccharides, vitamins, minerals, and phenolic compounds. Due to a very large fruit that it is not easy to consume a whole as well as short shelf-life of fresh-cut pumpkin, different ways of conserving and processing are performed. In our study, total carotenoids, total phenolics and individual phenolics in fresh pumpkin and pumpkin traditional products such as sweet in wine, jam and juice, which are typical for northern parts of Serbia, were studied. Total carotenoids ranged from 27.6 µg/g of pumpkin sweet in wine to86.3 µg/g of fresh fruit, while the amount of total phenolics varied between 93.0 µg GAE/g of pumpkin juice and 905.9 µg GAE/g of fresh fruit. Eight phenolic compounds were identified in the investigated samples and among them phenolic acids dominated. Among flavonoids, flavanon glycoside hesperidin was detected.