Chemical and nutritional characterization of fruits from Geoffroea decorticans tree (Chañar) and their parts, from Argentine subtropical forest

Abstract

Geoffroea decorticans, chañar, is an abundant tree in the north of Argentina and limiting countries.Its fruits are rich in minerals, carbohydrate, protein and fibers. A novel approach was developed, where aftercoarse milling and sieving of the fruits, exocarp and mesocarp is separated from the stones (endocarp andseed). Subsequent fine grinding gave flours named A and B, respectively. But, in another original process, thestones can be coarse milled and two new fractions can be obtained, C and D. Flour A representing 61% of thefruit was low in crude fiber (CF, 5.13%) and fat (1.89%), but high in carbohydrate (81.95%) and protein(8.90%). Flour B was higher in fat and fibers (6.66% and 46.8%), but lower in protein (5.02%). The carbohydrate content was almost the same in both. Flour C had almost nothing of fat and minor quantities ofprotein but was rich in fibers (47.0%). Flour D contained most of the stone protein and the remaining oil in a 23% concentration. The main minerals present in the different fractions were Ca, Mg, and Fe, while heavy metalswere not significant. Samples showed all essential amino acids in free state except the sulfur ones, but theproteins presented all of them, with some fractions exceeding the chemical score of 100. These results enable tosuggest some of these flour fractions as raw material for food or feed.