Identificação de biomoléculas do bacuri e do fruto do mandacaru por espectroscopia UV-visível e simulação molecular.

Abstract

The identification of biomolecules in exotic fruits from the North and Northeast regions of Brazil has the potential to contribute to several applications. In this line, the present work aimed to study the biomolecules (flavonoids, carotenoids, vitamins and fatty acids) of bacuri (Platonia Insignis, Clusiaceae) and the mandacaru berry (Cereus Jamacaru D.C). The main objective of the present study was to apply a simple method to identify these molecules, which is low-cost, provides quick results and can be easily replicated in the laboratory. To this end, conventional UV-visible spectroscopy and computational simulation of molecules via DFT and TDDFT proved to be useful techniques in this study approach. Samples of bacuri and mandacaru fruit were collected, separated into epicarp, mesocarp and endocarp, and measured in UV-Visible in the solvents distilled water (H2O) and ethyl alcohol (C2H6O). Simulations of the predicted biomolecules were calculated using Gaussian 09W and Orca 5.0 software. The results demonstrated the main absorptions for bacuri in the region between 250 and 450 nm, and for the mandacaru berry in a wavelength range of 300 to 800 nm, whose bands correspond to the HOMO-LUMO transitions between molecular orbitals and identify the biomolecules predicted by the literature, agreeing with the calculated theoretical spectra. It is concluded, therefore, that the simple way of extracting biomolecules was significant, despite not being able to obtain spectra of individual biomolecules as in computational calculations, but rather of groups of biomolecules, but showing that this type of analysis can be used as a routine for identification of molecular compounds.