干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Essential oils consist of a mixture of volatile compounds contained in many plant organs. Although much studied in fruits grown in temperate regions, there is little scientific information about the essential oils of tropical fruits. In the northeastern semi-arid region, the umbu (Spondias tuberosa Arr. Cam.) stands out, with significant economic potential. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the chemical composition of the essential oil of umbu, in two forms, fresh fruit and pulp. Part of the fruit was submitted to the semi-industrial pulping process and in the other, the seed was removed manually. The oil was obtained by hydrodistillation using Clevenger apparatus for 180 min. The identification of the compounds was performed by gas chromatograph coupled to a mass spectrometer. Although the sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were the majority class in the two essential oils, the essential oil of the fresh fruit presented higher levels of monoterpene compounds, especially a-terpineol. The results suggest that the process of processing the product into the pulp leads to a loss of monoterpenoids in the essential oil of umbu.