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567
Review
Gac fruit (Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng.): a rich source of
bioactive compounds and its potential health benefits
Hoang V. Chuyen,1,2 Minh H. Nguyen,1,3* Paul D. Roach,1 John B. Golding1,4 & Sophie E. Parks1,4
1
2
3
4
School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, PO Box 127, Brush Road, Ourimbah, NSW 2258, Australia
Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, Tay Nguyen University, 567 Le Duan Street, Buon Ma Thuot, Daklak, Vietnam
School of Science and Health, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia
NSW Department of Primary Industries, Ourimbah, NSW 2258, Australia
(Received 19 September 2014; Accepted in revised form 12 November 2014)
Summary
Gac (Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng.) is a tropical vine originating from South and South-East Asia.
Gac fruit has traditionally been used in Asia to provide red colour for cuisines and enhance visional
health. Recently, Gac fruit has emerged as a potential source of carotenoids, especially lycopene and
b-carotene. Carotenoids and other identied bioactives from this fruit including phenolics, avonoids
and trypsin inhibitors are associated with many benecial bioactivities such as antioxidant, anticancer and
provitamin A activities. In addition to the traditional utilisation, commercial products like Gac powder
and Gac oil have been manufactured as natural colourants and medicinal supplements. This paper is a
review of the scientic literature on the nutritional composition, biological activities and processing of
Gac fruit.
Keywords
Introduction
doi:10.1111/ijfs.12721
2014 Institute of Food Science and Technology
568
Name
Latin
English
Chinese
Vietnamese
Thai
Hindu
Laos
Malais
Tagalog
Adapted from Lim (2012).
fresh weight)
Total carotenoids
b-carotene
Lycopene
References
892
977
481
497
188
175
101
718
83
379
1600
45
802
380
2227
408
3728
1400
9
Stearic
(18:0)
Oleic
(18:1D9)
Linoleic
(18:2 D9,12)
References
22.0
26.432.1
17.3
7.1
3.212.2
7.5
34.1
30.833.7
59.5
31.4
27.528.7
13.98
569
570
Gac aril and products from Gac aril have been demonstrated to have very high antioxidative activity
because of their extremely high levels of carotenoids,
especially lycopene. Lycopene has been reported as
one of the most bioactive carotenoids which contributes to a variety of health benets by having anticancer, cardioprotective and anti-inammatory eects
(Bhuvaneswari & Nagini, 2005; Mordente et al., 2011;
Hazewindus et al., 2012).
There are many studies which have focused on the
antioxidant activity of Gac fruit as well as on the
changes in antioxidant activity of the processed products (Table 4). For example, Kubola & Siriamornpun
(2011) investigated the ferric-reducing antioxidant
power (FRAP) of extracts from dierent parts of Gac
fruits at dierent stages of maturity. The extract from
aril of the fully ripe fruits exhibited the highest antioxidant activity, while the lowest activity was identied
in the extract from the seeds. These results were
explained by the correlation between the antioxidant
capacity and the total phenolic content of the
Assay
Result
References
ABTS
ABTS & DPPH
571
572
Treatment
0.75 mg DW of fruit g
body weight
10100 mg L 1
5200 lg mL 1, 72 h
0.4 mg mL 1, 48 h
0.8 mg mL 1, 48 h
Result
References
The eects of various drying methods and drying factors on the physiochemical properties, carotenoid content and antioxidant activity of Gac aril have been
investigated for the production of Gac aril powder.
Tran et al. (2008) studied the eects of enzyme pretreatments and drying methods on the degradation of
carotenoids during the production of Gac powder.
Although the enzyme treatments (Pectinex and Maxoliva) allowed the aril to be more easily separated from
the seeds, they caused signicant losses of carotenoids
in the dried aril compared to the untreated samples.
The dried Gac aril produced by freeze drying showed
the highest total carotenoid content (7577 lg g 1) followed by that obtained from vacuum drying
(5523 lg g 1), air drying (5426 lg g 1), oven drying
(4825 lg g 1) and spray drying (380 lg g 1). The
highest degradation of carotenoids in the spray drying
process was explained by the use of a very high temperature for the inlet air (200 C). For this reason,
various temperatures and the use of maltodextrin as a
drying assisting agent were investigated to reduce the
loss of carotenoids during the preparation of Gac aril
powder (Kha et al., 2010). An inlet-air temperature of
120 C and a maltodextrin concentration of 10% w/v
were found to be the most suitable conditions for
retaining the carotenoids and total antioxidant activity
of the dried powder. In a later study by these authors,
dierent temperatures for air drying were investigated
simultaneously with pretreatments for the retention of
carotenoid content and antioxidant activity of Gac aril
(Kha et al., 2011). An inverse association between the
total carotenoid content of dried Gac aril and drying
temperature was found when temperature was
increased from 40 to 80 C. Although most of the previous studies on drying Gac aril attempted to produce
Gac aril powder having a moisture content of 6% or
less, Mai et al. (2013a,b) carried out a limited drying
process, which only dehydrated Gac aril to a moisture
content of 1518%, to maintain the nutritional value
of the Gac aril. Interestingly, the optimal temperature
for reducing carotenoid loss was 60 C among the
investigated range of 4080 C instead of the lowest
temperature as reported previously by Kha et al.
(2011). Carotenoids were more protected when the aril
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574
eciency were studied (Kha et al., 2014a). The pretreatments of the Gac aril and extraction time, temperature and pressure signicantly inuenced the oil
extraction yield as well as the carotenoid level of the
oil. The highest extraction eciency of oil (95%) was
achieved from the extraction at 200 bar, 50 C for
120 min of the aril powder having a particle size of
0.45 mm, which was treated with 0.1% pectinase prior
to being dried at 50 C.
Although lycopene and b-carotene are the most
important bioactive compounds in Gac oil, they are
very susceptible to storage conditions and can degrade
rapidly during storage (Vuong & King, 2003). For this
reason, the protection of the bioactive compounds in
Gac oil has been studied. Kha and co-authors (2014c,
d) recently investigated the encapsulation of Gac oil
by spray drying. To improve the encapsulation eciency of the oil, the spraying conditions and the wall
materials were optimised. The use of a proteinpolysaccharide matrix as wall material at 29.5% (v/v) relative to the Gac oil, for the microencapsulation by
spray drying with inlet and outlet temperatures of 154
and 80 C, respectively, was found as the optimal process for the production of encapsulated Gac oil powder. In the powder produced by the above optimal
conditions, 92%, 80% and 74% of oil, b-carotene and
lycopene in the oil were encapsulated by the wall
matrix. The high encapsulation eciencies of oil and
the carotenoids suggest that the oxidation of Gac oil
and carotenoid loss during storage can be reduced signicantly by protection from the storage environment.
In addition, the encapsulated powder showed an
attractive orangered colour and high solubility in
water, which makes the powder easy to incorporate
into various foods (Kha et al., 2014c,d).
The results from the processing of Gac oil and Gac
powder suggest that Gac fruit is a potential material
for producing high-quality commercial products for
food and medicinal uses. However, in addition to the
development of products from Gac aril, the processing
of the pulp, peel and seed should also be considered to
further exploit the biological potential of compounds
in these sources.
Storage of Gac fruit and Gac products
The most valuable part of Gac fruit is the red aril due
to its high concentration of carotenoids, which are
very susceptible to degradation by environmental and
storage conditions such as light, oxygen and temperature. Thus, one of the important issues for the storage
of Gac products is the prevention of carotenoid loss.
Because the harvesting period of Gac fruit is usually
from October to the next February in Vietnam, farmers
usually sun-dry the Gac aril and store it in tight containers under the absence of light for year round consump-
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