Nutritional Content and Antioxidant Properties of Sapota (Manilkara Achras Forb.) Fruit Varieties

Sapota is popular in a number of countries for its delicious, soft, sweet and luscious fruits. Although several varieties of sapota are under commercial cultivation in India, information on nutritional profiling of fruit and the associated health benefits have not been investigated. Hence, the present study was carried out to evaluate seven commercial varieties of sapota for their nutritional characteristics with a view to better exploit sapota fruits for their health benefits. A notable feature of the study was that the varieties Kalipati, Guthi and CO2 had significantly higher levels of the micro elements Fe, Cu and Zn respectively which could be exploited for treating mineral deficiency symptoms in human patients. The separation and identification of high levels of minerals and phytonutrients like, total phenol, total flavonoids, anthocyanins, fatty acids and free radical scavenging activity in fruit pulp showed that sapota fruit is nutritionally a rich fruit with many phytochemicals which are beneficial in both health and disease. The principal component analysis could successfully identify varieties with the largest amount of phytonutrients having specific health benefits.