Bioactive Composition and Acute Oral Toxicity Studies on Persea Americana Seed Ethyl Acetate Fraction

Aims: Persea americana (P. americana) dubbed ‘green gold’ is a highly sought after fruit today, with insatiable export market. Different parts of avocadoes have been consumed both for nutritional and health benefits across regions of the world. Therefore, this study investigates the bioactive composition of P. americana seed ethyl acetate fraction and acute toxicological effects.

Place and duration of study: Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Technology Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria; between May 2019 and October, 2019.

Methodology: Quantitative phytochemical composition was assessed using gas chromatography fitted with flame ionization detector (GC-FID) and acute toxicity determined using standard method.

Results: Result of quantitative phytochemical composition of P. americana seed fraction shows a rich presence of phytochemicals such as epicatechin, kaempferol, proanthocyanin, rutin, resveratrol, ribalinidine, naringin, spartein, quinine, flavan-3-ol, anthocyanin, lunamarin, sapogenin, flavonones, flavones. The quantitative phytochemical composition of P. americana seed shows that among other phytochemicals, the seed is relatively rich in anthocyanin, quinine, epicatechin, tannin and proanthocyanin with concentrations of 69.39 ± 8.33 µg/g, 22.16 ±1.77 µg/g, 21.88 ± 2.53 µg/g, 19.86 ± 1.19 µg/g and 10.98 ± 0.55 µg/g respectively. The acute toxicity studies on the seed reveal that the ethyl acetate fraction of P. americana seed did not elicit any lethal signs of morbidity and mortality at doses up to 5000mg/Kgb.wt. and are therefore considered generally safe.

Conclusion: P. americana seed ethyl acetate fraction contains essential phytochemicals with useful phyto-medicinal and nutraceutical benefits. The implications of these findings are further discussed.