Nutritional Composition and Antioxidant Properties of the Fruits of a Chinese Wild Passiflora foetida

The aim of this work was to evaluate the main nutrients and their antioxidant properties of a Chinese wild edible fruit,Passiflora foetida,collected from the ecoregion of Hainan province, China. The analytical results revealed thatP. foetidafruits were rich in amino acids (1097 mg/100 g in total), minerals (595.75 mg/100 g in total), and unsaturated fatty acids (74.18 g/100 g in total fat). The lyophilized powder of edible portion contained the higher polyphenols content than the inedible portion powder. The UPLC-Q-TOF-MSEanalysis of the extractable and non-extractable phenolics indicated the presence of 65 compounds including 39 free phenolics, 14 insoluble-glycoside-phenolics, and 22 insoluble-ester-phenolics. In addition, the non-extractable phenolics obtained by alkali hydrolysis showed significant antioxidant activities by/through DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging. These findings ofP. foetidafruits, for the first time, suggest that these polyphenol-rich fruits may have potential nutraceutical efficacies.Keywords:Passiflora foetida;fruit;nutritional composition;antioxidant properties;UPLC-MS;phenolic compound