Total phenol and flavonoids in by-product of Indian litchi: Difference among genotypes

Abstract

An investigation was carried out to determine the differences in phenolic and flavonoids profiles on by-product of (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) from thirty genotypes available in India at ICAR-NRC on Litchi, Muzaffarpur, Bihar during 2017. Litchi by-product contains significant amounts of phenol and flavonoids which have been found to exhibit diverse biological activities. The results indicated that the total by-product in litchi fruit varied from 19.85 per cent in genotype IC-0615587 to 59.54 per cent in genotype IC-0615595. The maximum seed and pericarp per cent was found in genotype Coll.38 (22.58%) and genotype IC-0615595 (36.96%), respectively. A wide variation in phenolics content has been observed in the present study. The maximum phenol in pericarp was found in genotype IC-0615613 (62.2 mg GAE/g) followed by IC-0615588 (55.77 mg GAE/g) whereas, lowest phenol was found in genotype IC-0615606 (7.5 mg GAE/g) followed by Coll. 35 (8.75 mg GAE/g) and maximum phenol in seed was found in genotype IC-0615597 (85.57 mg GAE/g) followed by IC-0615603 (75.3 mg GAE/g) whereas, the minimum phenol in seed was recorded in IC-0615608 (23.01 mg GAE/g) followed by IC-0615606 (24.53 mg GAE/g). The maximum pericarp flavonoid content was observed in four genotypes viz., IC-0615592, IC-0615595, IC-0615613 and Coll.37 (96.62 mg CE/g) followed by IC-0615598 (59.93 mg CE/g) while, the minimum flavonoid in pericarp was found in genotype IC-0615600 and IC-0615610 (0.73 mg CE/g) followed by IC-0615602 (0.86 mg CE/g). The maximum flavonoid content in seed was observed in genotype IC-0615586 (27.50 mg CE/g) followed by IC-0615602 (20.79 mg CE/g) whereas, the minimum flavonoid content in seed was found in genotypeIC-0615587 (2.41 mg CE/g) followed by IC-0615591(2.92 mg CE/g) and IC-0615592 (3.20 mg CE/g). The correlation study showed that total phenol in pericarp had significant positive correlation with flavonoids content in pericarp (0.413) and had highly significant negative correlation with per cent of seed (-0.635) in fruit. Similarly, flavonoids in pericarp had significant negative correlation with flavonoids in seed (-0.436) but had positive correlation with per cent of pericarp (0.341). Total phenol in seed had positive correlation with per cent of pericarp (0.336) in fruit at harvesting.