MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND CHEMICAL SCREENING OF BIXA ORELLANA

Authors

  • Shindu Irais Gómez-Covarrubias
  • Denise Raddatz Mota
  • José Alberto Mendoza-Espinoza
  • Fernando Díaz de León-Sánchez
  • Fernando Rivera-Cabrera

Abstract

The achiote (Bixa orellana L., Bixaceae) is a native plant of tropical America used mainly to obtain a natural dye rich in carotenoids (mainly bixin and norbixin), also used in the phytochemical and pharmacological areas. In the present work, a total of 8 quantitative and 14 qualitative traits mainly associated with vegetative, leaf, and fruit traits were measured on five accessions of B. orellana. There
was high variability in the morphological parameter determined among the accessions studied, which
suggests the existence of a rich diversity within B. orellana populations from the different geographical
sites studied. Chemical screening showed a high tannin content and a low alkaloid content present in
the B. orellana leaf extracts of all the accessions studied. Chemical characterization showed that accession
50 had the highest levels of Total Phenolic Compounds (TPC) and Antioxidant Capacity (AC) in comparison with other accessions studied.

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Published

2020-09-22

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Artículos Científicos