Studies on Dietary Fibre Content of Four Uncommon Palmyrah Fruit Types

Abstract

The fruit pulp of common types of palmyrah (Borassus flabellifer) contains high quantities of dietary fibre and pectin content which had been reported to be 5-7%. Four uncommon fruit types were collected from Mannar, Sri Lanka, The fruit pulp contained 12,8 to 16.8% insoluble dietary fibre and 9.7 to 10.9% dry weight soluble dietary fibre. Pectin contents were high (8.1 to 10.6% dry weight) and pectin was by far the largest contributor soluble dietary fibre. Sepharose-gel chromatography showed that the soluble dietary fibre was polydisperse with some factions in type A and type B showing eluent volume corresponding to molecular weight in excess of2 million Daltons. The study show that: (i) if these uncommon type are propagated this could yield a commercially valuable by-product in pectin. (ii) high fibre content of fruit pulp can result in medically beneficial effects when edible palmyrah fruit preparations is consumed.