Bioactive compounds on Lodoicea Maldivica fruits: Their determination by GC-MS

The Lodoicea Maldivica, commonly named “Coco de mer” or “Double Coco-Nut”, is a native palm of the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean. The about 4000 palms of the “Coco de mer” are protected and despite the importance of the site, the local government allows to sold with high price all hundreds of coco-nuts picked every year, e.g. 701 nuts in 2003. These palms are considered as the last witness of the old continent “Gondwana”, formed by Africa, Madagascar and India, which 65 millions of years ago split into a number of lands leaving Seychelles alone. The dried “Coco de mer” kernel is exported in various parts of the world, especially the Middle East and China, where it has been used for centuries in traditional medicine and in “ayurvedics”, both as an aphrodisiac and for rejuvenating cosmetic creams and to treat other pathologies such as coughs. Despite the characteristics mentioned above, it has never been studied from a chemical point of view. The analytical study here presented intends to fill this gap with particular attention to highlight the healthy and food safety use of the fruit, and the possible presence of chemical compounds interesting from a nutritional and pharmacological point of view. The analysis was performed by GC-MS technique to determine phytosterol and fatty acid composition profiles in internal and external pulp. Total phytosterol content was almost constant in both kernel coco-nut (24.6 µg/g for the external and 22.5 µg/g for the internal portion). The fatty acid pattern has been determined. The composition was characterized by seven saturated acids ranged from C14:0 (myristic) to C20:0 (arachidic) and two monounsaturated acids, the palmitoleic (C16:1, ω7) and the oleic (C18:1, ω9). Palmitic acid (C16:0) was the predominant one with contribution of about 49% followed by pentadecanoic, stearic (C18:0) and myristic acids (C14:0) in all two examined kernel parts.