Polysaccharides from baobab (Adansonia digitata) fruit pulp: Structural features and biological properties

Water-soluble polysaccharides were extracted from baobab (Adansonia digitata) fruit pulp (BPCP) in overall yield of 2.67%. The crude polysaccharides consisted of 75.14% carbohydrates, mainly xylose (28.5%), glucose (21.7%), galactose (18.2%) and arabinose (17.8%) and minor amount of rhamnose and galacturonic acid (4.4%). FTIR and 13C NMR studies revealed the presence of key functional groups whereas morphological study of BPCP showed a homogeneous matrix with a micro-porous structure. The obtained polysaccharides presented good thermal stability with an optimal temperature of 250 °C. Antioxidant tests demonstrated that BPCP exhibited interesting DPPH, ABTS radical scavenging, ferrous ion chelation and reducing antioxidant power. The present study explored also the potential of BPCP as source of antibacterial and antihypertensive compounds. The results of this work strongly suggest the promising potentials of baobab fruit pulp as good sources of polysaccharidic compounds that can be further used for food and pharmaceutical applications.