Investigation of the Potential of Commercial and Wild Passiflora Seed Species as Stilbenes Sources

Abstract

Passion fruit seeds, a byproduct of juice processing, are rich in bioactive stilbenes with health-promoting properties. This study investigated piceatannol and resveratrol in seeds from four commercial and sixteen wild Passiflora species using the μ-QuEChERS method combined with UHPLC-MS/MS analysis. The method showed good analytical performance, with linearity (R² ≥ 0.991), LOQ ≤ 20 μg kg^-1, and RSD < 11%. Piceatannol and resveratrol were found in 70 and 60% of the analyzed species, respectively. Piceatannol was found in significantly higher amounts (0.6-55.2 mg kg^-1) in 95% of these species, with values up to 56 times greater than resveratrol (0.3-7.5 mg kg^-1). The highest piceatannol amounts were observed in the wild species P. longifilamentosa (55.2 mg kg^-1) and P. edulis x P. caerulea (44.7 mg kg^-1). These findings highlight Passiflora seeds as a valuable natural source of piceatannol, supporting their potential applications in functional foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products.

Keywords: Passiflora; UHPLC-MS/MS; piceatannol; resveratrol; seeds; μ-QuEChERS.

1

Flowchart illustrating the optimization steps of the μ-QuEChERS method for extracting piceatannol and resveratrol from Passiflora seeds.

2

Evaluation of the original, acetate, and citrate μ-QuEChERS method versions for extracting piceatannol and resveratrol from Passiflora seeds. Data represents the mean peak area normalized to 100% across the μ-QuEChERS versions for each stilbene (n = 3). The μ-QuEChERS version followed by the same letter did not differ statistically from each other using the Tukey test (p < 0.05).

3

pH values of Passiflora seed extracts from the twenty species evaluated.

4

Evaluation of the d-SPE cleanup step efficiency in terms of matrix effect (% ME) for Passiflora seed extracts from the twenty species studied.