Determination and evaluation of the mineral composition of breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) using multivariate analysis technique

Abstract

Breadfruit is a fruit originated from South Pacific and afterward it was widespread in rest of Oceania. In Brazil it is known as “fruta pão” and has been consumed mainly by humble people. In home use, breadfruit has been consumed cooked, fried or roasted. Industrially, it has been employed to prepare breads and flours. In the present paper, the mineral composition of breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) was determined and evaluated. Raw breadfruit samples and cooked using domestic methods as boiling and microwave heating were digested in acid media and the elements potassium, calcium, phosphor, magnesium, iron, sodium and manganese were determined employing inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES). Cadmium and lead were also determined using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS), but the concentrations found were lower than the limits of quantification for these elements. Eleven samples were acquired in several cities from Bahia state, Brazil. All these samples were analyzed in triplicate. The data obtained were evaluated employing the multivariate analysis techniques: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA). Both techniques showed that the cooking methods using microwave heating and boiling cause loss of the nutrients. PCA also evidenced that the element concentrations in the samples cooked using microwave heating are higher than in the samples cooked by boiling using stove. The average concentrations of the determined elements (expressed as mg 100 g−1 of sample) in raw samples were as follows: 269.4 for potassium, 40.97 for phosphorus, 26.32 for calcium, 24.35 for magnesium, 1.41 for sodium, 0.1891 for iron and 0.0381 for manganese.