Estudo dos parâmetros químicos e físico-químicos da polpa da Morinda Citrifolia Linn (Noni)

Abstract

Morinda citrifolia Linn comes from Southeast Asia and plays an important role in Polynesian medicine. Being a species capable of growing in different types of soil and climate, it has adapted to several regions of the Brazilian territory. Producing fruit the whole year, noni became the target of studies having as one of the motivations the legalization of its commercialization, which is currently prohibited in Brazil. Thus, the academic community has been arousing interest in scientifically determining the most diverse properties for the health of noni, as well as the effects of prolonged consumption of the fruit. The present study aimed to evaluate some chemical parameters of the fruit pulp of Morinda citrifolia Linn, noni, as protein, lipids, carbohydrates, minerals, ashes and vitamin C. In addition to physico-chemical parameters such as pH, titratable acidity and color. The results demonstrate that the fruit pulp has around 86.84% of humidity, 0.55% of protein, 0.2144% of lipids, 0.572% of ashes, besides presenting important amounts of macro and microminerals. It presented acid pH, besides having considerable amount of soluble solids