Inhibition of Acetylcholinesterase and Fatty Acid Composition in Theobroma grandiflorum Seeds

Abstract

<p class="orbitalabstract"><em>Theobroma grandiflorum </em>is an important fruit tree from Sterculiaceae family, native to the Brazilian Amazon, known in the region as cupuaçu. The seeds have a high fat content (24%) with characteristics that resemble those of cocoa (Theobroma cacao) butter with potential applications in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food industries. The main objective of this work was to explore the seed fats from T. grandiflorum that were analyzed for fatty acid composition by Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID) and to analyze their activity for acetylcholinesterase inhibition. Chromatographic analysis provided detection of nine fatty acids. The major fatty acids found in the species were oleic (40.0%), stearic (32.7%), arachidic (10.4%) and palmitic (8.0%). The acetylcholinesterase inhibition by fats from seeds was over 40.48%. <p class="orbitalabstract"> <p class="orbitalabstract">DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17807/orbital.v0i0.894">http://dx.doi.org/10.17807/orbital.v0i0.894</a> <p class="Estilopadro">