PRELIMINAR ANALYSIS OF ANTHOCYANINS OF THE COCOPLUM FRUIT (Chrysobalanus icaco L.)

Abstract

The cocoplum (Chrysobalanus icaco L.) is a barely domesticated native plant from America and Africa; its is distributed in some of the world’s humid tropics. Its main uses are as a food, medicine and ornamental. The fruits have morphological differences, particularly in pigmentation, due to the presence of anthocyanins. The identification of these substances may serve as a starting point for further studies in chemotaxonomy, ecology and physiology. Through chromatographic on descendent paper and spectrophotometric techniques, it was identified in a qualitative way the anthocyanins of the skin of red and purple fruits, as cyanidin 3-arabinoside and delphinidin 3,5 diglucoside, respectively, in comparison with standards.