LAUSR

BACKGROUND The Cerrado occupies 23% of Brazil. A. othonianum is a Cerrado native species that presents differently colored pseudofruits. This report describes the morphometric properties, physicochemical characterization and phenolic and flavonoid compound compositions of thirty accessions of A. othonianum. RESULTS The morphometric properties show that average fruits had 21.97 mm length, 18.61 mm width, and 11.13 mm thickness with 2.52 g mass. The pseudofruits had 28.84 mm apex width with 12.83 g of mass. The hue parameters of the pseudofruits were 18.67±2.00 and 83.32±1.97° (p<0.05), reflecting their red to yellow color. The titratable acidity of the accessions was 0.91±0.09 to 3.02±0.02 % (p<0.05), soluble solid content was 9.60±0.17 to 13.47±0.38 °Brix (p<0.05), and pH ranged from 2.83±0.06 to 3.83±0.06 (p<0.05). Fourteen flavonoid compounds were identified. The most common compounds in the accessions were vitexin (93% of the accessions), hesperidin (57% of the accessions), epicatechin (34% of accessions) and kaempferol-3-O-glucoside (30% of accessions). The methodology of cluster analysis allowed the formation of four groups considering the traits ∆E, °h, C, soluble solid content, titratable acidity, pH, flavonoids total and their compounds identified. CONCLUSIONS Although all accessions are A. othonianum specie, there is variation in the chemical composition and the physical characteristics of these fruits. This is the first report in the literature using wild accessions; greater disclosure of the specie is interesting because it can increase income for the local population. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.