Arabian Journal of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Vol 8, No 3 (2022)

Nutritional composition, phytochemical screening, antioxidant, GC-MS, and FTIR analysis of methanolic extract of apricot, Prunus armeniaca kernel from Ladakh, India

Basharat Ali, Yogesh Kumar Rawal, Sidharth ., Chhomo Thayes

Abstract


With the aim of looking for alternatives to chemicals being used in the aquaculture, food industry, nutraceutical and medicinal industries which are responsible for environmental degradation in one way or another, the present study has been done to investigate the phytochemical composition of apricot, Prunus armeniaca kernel extracted with methanol collected from Kargil, Ladakh (India). Apricot kernels were analysed for their proximate nutritional properties, qualitative and quantitative phytochemistry and antioxidant properties. GC-MS and FT-IR analysis were employed to identify the various secondary compounds and their functional groups present in the extract. The results revealed apricot kernel possesses 20.61% crude protein and 56.08% crude fat composed mainly of unsaturated fatty acids which is indicative of its rich nutritional, nutraceutical and medicinal properties. The qualitative phytochemical screening showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, phytoestrogens, glycosides and phenolic compounds, while the quantitative phytochemistry results showed total phenolics (63.56931 ± 1.686 mg/100 g GAE) and total flavonoids (176.51 ± 3.396 mg/100 g QE) present in the extract. Free radical scavenging activity by the DPPH scavenging method also showed a good antioxidant property of the extract. A total of 7 compounds were identified by GC-MS analysis with Pentadecanoic acid, 14-methyl-, methyl ester (5.07%), trans-13-Octadecenoic acid, methyl ester (78.44%) and 10-Methyleicosane (10.93%) being the major compounds. The FT-IR spectrum revealed the presence of amines, alkanes, alkenes, alcohols, phenol, esters and carboxylic acids.