Polysaccharides from baobab (Adansonia digitata) fruit pulp: Structural features and biological properties

• Published in: South African journal of botany 2023-06, Vol.157, p.387-397
• Main Authors: Bougatef, Hajer, Tandia, Fakourou, Sila, Assaad, Haddar, Anissa, Bougatef, Ali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Baobab; Biological activities; Polysaccharides; Structural analysis
• ISSN: 0254-6299; 1727-9321
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sajb.2023.04.024

•Polysaccharides were isolated from baobab fruit pulp (BPCP).•The physicochemical and Structural characteristics of BPCP were investigated.•BPCP exhibited good antioxidant, antibacterial and antihypertensive effects.•BPCP may be useful for nutraceutical and biomedical applications. Water-soluble polysaccharides were extracted from baobab (Adansonia digitata) fruit pulp (BPCP) in overall yield of 2.67%. The crude polysaccharides consisted of 75.14% carbohydrates, mainly xylose (28.5%), glucose (21.7%), galactose (18.2%) and arabinose (17.8%) and minor amount of rhamnose and galacturonic acid (4.4%). FTIR and 13C NMR studies revealed the presence of key functional groups whereas morphological study of BPCP showed a homogeneous matrix with a micro-porous structure. The obtained polysaccharides presented good thermal stability with an optimal temperature of 250 °C. Antioxidant tests demonstrated that BPCP exhibited interesting DPPH, ABTS radical scavenging, ferrous ion chelation and reducing antioxidant power. The present study explored also the potential of BPCP as source of antibacterial and antihypertensive compounds. The results of this work strongly suggest the promising potentials of baobab fruit pulp as good sources of polysaccharidic compounds that can be further used for food and pharmaceutical applications.