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Current Nutrition & Food Science, 2018, 14, 1-6 1

REVIEW ARTICLE

Food Products with Mesocarp Babassu: A Review

Bárbara Verônica Cardoso de Souzaa,*, Regilda Saraiva dos Reis Moreira-Araújoa,

Luanne Morais Vieira Galvãob, Larice de Carvalho Valec, Lindalva de Moura Rochaa,
Mônica Larissa Sousa Cardosoa, Rayssa Gabriela Costa Lima Porto Luzd,
Maria Fabrícia Beserra Gonçalvesa, Oskar Almeida Silvae and Lívio César Cunha Nunese

a
Nutrition Departament, Federal University of Piauí, Teresina, Brazil; bFederal Institute of Piauí, Teresina, Piauí, Brazil;
c
Coordenation of Nutrition, Federal University of Piauí, Pícos, Brazil; dFederal Institute do Maranhão, São João dos
Patos, Maranhão, Brazil; ePharmacy Departament, Federal University of Piauí, Teresina, Brazil

Abstract: The babassu palm is one of the most important representatives of the palm family in Brazil.
The almond and mesocarp are the edible parts of the babassu, used in human food, animal and as me-
dicine. Due to the fact that the babassu mesocarp is rich in starch and other nutrients, the objective of
this work was to carry out a technological survey on the use of the mesocarp of babassu in the elabora-
ARTICLE HISTORY tion of food products such as biscuits, breads and cereal bars. The search for deposited patents was ca-
Received: September 19, 2017 rried out in the databases of the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), the European Patent
Revised: January 17, 2018 Convention (EPO), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the World Intellec-
Accepted: January 17, 2018
tual Property Organization (WIPO). And the database for the search for scientific articles was the Web
DOI:
10.2174/1573401314666180129153932
of Science. When the "babassu and mesocarp" combinations were searched, seven patents were depo-
sited with INPI. And among articles related to keywords, only one article was related to human food.
In general, these results demonstrate a perspective of the technological application of the babassu me-
socarp in the elaboration of food products, being a promising area.

Keywords: Babassu, bread, cereal bar, cookies, foods, mesocarp.

1. INTRODUCTION The coconut or “coquilho” (fruit of the babassu palm

tree) is composed of four main parts: 1) epicarp (15% of the
The babassu palm is one of the most important represen-
fruit) is the fibrous outer layer, 2) mesocarp (20% of the
tatives of the palm family in Brazil. It belongs to the genus
fruit) is the middle layer between the epicarp and the endo-
Orbignya and it has about 20 species in Central, North and
carp, which is fibrous and amylaceous, i.e. rich in starch, 3)
South America, distributed from southern Mexico to Peru,
endocarp (59% of the coconut) is the inner woody layer
Bolivia, and Brazil [1]. The botanists differ regarding to the
where the almonds are housed, and 4) almonds (6% of the
classification of the babassu palm, classifying it as Orbignya
coconut) which is white, covered with a brown film, and in
oleifera, O. martiana, O. speciosa, or even, O. phalerata [2].
each fruit is usually found 3 to 4 almonds [4].
According to Carvalho [3], the babassu explored in the Piauí
State was called Orbignya speciosa. The babassu mesocarp flour has 68.3% of starch; 1.54%
The extractivism of the babassu palm tree is a secular ac- of protein; 0.27% of lipids; 1.25% of soluble carbohydrates;
tivity in the Brazilian territory, being public and notorious its and 2.54% of dietary fiber [5]. A phytochemical study, in
use as a source of food, energy and material for building samples of babassu mesocarp from the states of Piauí and
houses. The Brazilians babassus, present in 18.5 million hec- Maranhão, found the presence of tannins, flavonoids, sapon-
tares, are concentrated in the Northeast, North and Central- ins and free anthraquinones [6].
West regions, with a greater emphasis on the Northeast re-
In addition to the nutritional properties, the powder of the
gion, in which Maranhão and Piauí States have the biggest
babassu mesocarp has antioxidant activity, according to a
potential of almonds and the larger area occupied by cocais
study by Silva et al [7], in which this property of the aqueous
[2].
extract of Orbignya phalerata was evaluated in vitro. It is
also important to highlight that this raw material has low
*Address correspondence to this author at the Nutrition Department, Federal
toxicity once the aqueous extract of the powder of this spe-
University of Piauí - University Campus Minister Petrônio Portella, s/n, cies was administered orally in mice and no visible clinical
neighborhood Ininga, Teresina - PI, 64049-550; Tel: (86) 3215-5863; Fax: signs of toxicity were observed, the general activity of the
(86) 3215-5863; E-mail: barbara.vscardoso@ufpi.edu.br. rats was not altered, as well as their consumption of feed and

1573-4013/18 $58.00+.00 © 2018 Bentham Science Publishers

2 Current Nutrition & Food Science, 2018, Vol. 14, No. 0 Souza et al.

Table 1. Number of patents and scientific articles published in data bases of INPI, EPO, USPTO, WIPO and Web of Science ac-
cording to keywords.

Keywords INPI EPO USPTO WIPO Web of Science

Orbignya 5 3 34 15 30

Orbignya and mesocarp 0 0 2 6 2

Babassu 61 148 1822 143 140

Babassu and mesocarp 7 0 3 1 26

water. And there was no change on most of the biochemical 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
and hematological parameters studied [7].
3.1. Patents
Despite the importance of the babassu mesocarp, due to
its composition rich in nutrients, fibers and other bioactive Eleven patents were deposited with the keywords "ba-
compounds, this raw material is still poorly introduced into bassu mesocarp", in which seven patents were deposited at
human food, even though it is an excellent ingredient that INPI, three at USPTO and one at WIPO, as shown in Table
can be used in the preparation of new dietary products such (1). Only in the INPI there was a patent deposited in which
as biscuits, breads and cereal bars [1, 6]. the babassu mesocarp was related to Food Technology, and
accordingly to the International Patent Classification is in the
Based on the above considerations, the aim of this work human needs section (Section A), subclass A23L. This pat-
was to carry out a technological prospection on the uses and ent referred to the process of producing a nutritive bar, with
applications of the babassu mesocarp (Orbignya spp.) in the the babassu mesocarp as an ingredient.
elaboration of food products, based in the search for patents
and articles. In order to search and analyze patents were used It is shown in Fig. (1) that the most cited sections, using
the databases of National Institute of Industrial Property the keywords babassu and mesocarp, were C12P, which cov-
(INPI), European Patent Office (EPO), and United States ers fermentation processes or that uses enzymes to synthe-
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The articles were size a desired chemical composition or compound or to sepa-
researched and analyzed in the Web of Science database. rate optical isomers of a racemic mixture; D01C that deals
with natural or manufactured lines or fibers (similar man-
made from natural polymers and derivatives); and A23N
2. METHOD
which refers to machines or apparatus for the treatment of
The methodology used was the technological monitoring fruits, vegetables or flower bulbs harvested in bulk, not in-
on a national and international patents databases and pub- cluded elsewhere, peeling vegetables or fruit in bulk, and
lished scientific articles, in which the babassu mesocarp was apparatus for the preparation of animal feed.
cited and/or related to food processing for humans. The
bases of patent documents chosen were the National Institute
of Industrial Property (INPI), the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO), the European Patent Office (EPO),
and the United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO). The article search was performed in the Web of
Science database.
The search strategy was developed by the choice of key-
words and by the definition of the monitoring period (2007
to 2017). The search was performed with the insertion of the
keywords in the title and/or abstract field, therefore the terms
used were Orbignya, babassu and mesocarp. Took place
combinations were performed between the keywords, for
each combination the AND operator was used. In addition to
these combinations, patent and article searches were con-
ducted relating the use of the babassu mesocarp in the pro-
duction of food products such as biscuit, bread and cereal
bars.
Fig. (1). International Patent Classification with babassu and meso-
The crossing of the keywords was performed with the carp keywords.
same words in all databases, however it was used the English
language when executing the search in an international data- In the analysis of Fig. (2), is clear that the number of pat-
base. The titles, abstracts and claims were read and the ent applications does not very much, with a maximum of two
amount of patent and articles were identified, excluding du- patents being deposited per year. The last two patents pub-
plications. Those documents were analyzed using the soft- lished in 2016 relate to the extraction of lipids and the pro-
ware OriginPro (version 8). duction of derivates from these lipids from parts of vegeta-
Food Products with Mesocarp Babassu Current Nutrition & Food Science, 2018, Vol. 14, No. 0 3

Fig. (2). Evolution of published patent applications with the keywords babassu and mesocarp.

Table 2. Number of publications and patents related to food products.

Keywords INPI EPO USPTO WIPO Web of Science

Cookie 78 1550 18107 3771 315

Bread 200 10000 14199 23408 2286

Cereal bar 11 84 111 234 25

tive plants (babassu), such as leaves, stems, roots and tubers. 3.2. Articles
These industrial products include esters that can be mixed
Regarding to the articles, none was found in which used
with petroleum based fuels. The explanation for a small
the mesocarp babassu in human food, in the Web of Sciences
number of patent applications can be justified by the prefer-
database. However, there is an article published in 2016 by
ence of researchers to publish their research on scientific
Couri and Giada [9], researched at Google Scholar, in which
papers to file patents or even to not publish the results in any
way. a gluten-free bread based on babassu mesocarp was devel-
oped and the physical, chemical and sensorial properties
Table (2) represents the numbers of publications and pat- were evaluated. It was proved that the addition of this raw
ents related to the food products of this technological material also improves the nutritive value of foods, increas-
prospection. Despite the elevated number of published arti- ing the soluble fiber content and reducing the total glycogen
cles and patent applications using the keywords "cookie”, content.
"bread" and "cereal bar", only one patent was deposited at
This study verified that the use of babassu mesocarp flour
the INPI that used the babassu mesocarp as one of the ingre-
in the elaboration of gluten-free bread provided a better be-
dients. This invention consisted in the production of a nutri-
havior of the mass, as to its sustentation and structure, giving
tional bar for human consumption, using as raw material
rise to breads in the desired format. In the evaluation of the
cassava, honey, babassu and cashew, with high nutritional
centesimal composition, the bread with the mesocarp of ba-
value, rich in carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, vitamins and
fiber, bound by a natural binder system (BR 10 2012 bassu presented high mineral content, as well as soluble and
insoluble fibers [9]. This characteristic is important, since
004990-2) [8].
dietary fibers have relevant functions in promoting good
The above-cited patent features a product with a high nu- intestinal functioning, prevent cardiovascular diseases, type
tritional value, with ingredients rich in carbohydrates, pro- 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, dyslipidemias and neoplasms
teins, minerals, vitamins and fibers, bound by a natural [11-15]. This bread also presented a decrease in the protein
binder system (honey, manioc starch, water and sunflower content, which from the technological point of view is an
oil), different from the industrialized ones that use chemical advantage, since these proteins are not gluten-forming and
additives to obtain such an attribute, being beneficial for the their presence could denature the protein structure of the
health of the consumer, besides being of low cost and con- dough, decreasing the elasticity and the viscosity of the
tributes to the reduction of food waste [8]. breads [16]. Another important aspect observed in the addi-
4 Current Nutrition & Food Science, 2018, Vol. 14, No. 0 Souza et al.

Fig. (3). Number of articles published in the Web of Science database with the keywords "Orbignya", "Orbignya and mesocarp", "babassu"
and "babassu and mesocarp".

tion of the babassu mesocarp powder was the reduction of There are also some papers published in annals of con-
the total glycogen content and, consequently, the caloric gress, dissertations of master and work of conclusion of
value of the formulations. Breads are usually rich in starch course that showed those showed the use of babassu meso-
and poor in other nutrients [17]. carp flour as an ingredient in the processing of cookies,
bread and cake. This would be a viable alternative to par-
In addition to this article discussed above, which used the
tially or totally replacing wheat flour, and making food
mesocarp of babassu, another was found, also in academic
products healthier and more nutritious, as well as making
google, that made a thermogravimetric study and of the nu-
tritional properties of bread added of this raw material. The these products accessible to food-restricted people, such as
celiacs.
results of the addition of the mesocarp, instead of wheat
flour, showed a certain similarity with whole breads [18]. The terms "Orbignya", "Orbignya and mesocarp", "ba-
bassu" and "babassu and mesocarp" were used to search for
Arévalo-Pinedo et al. (2013) developed and evaluated the
articles in the Web of Science. It was found 30, 2, 140 and
stability of cereal bars based on dried babassu almond flour
26 articles, respectively, highlighted in Fig. (3). The two
(Orbygnia speciosa). The cereal bars developed were 10 and
articles found in the search with the keywords "Orbignya
12% dry babassu almond flour. As for the centesimal com-
and mesocarp" are among the 26 articles obtained from the
position, the cereal bars showed 8.45 to 8.75% humidity;
search with the keywords "babassu and mesocarp".
18.57 to 15.28% protein, 10.96 to 9.52% fat; 26.28 to
26.20% sugars, 0.87 to 0.91% ash, pH 5.38 to 5.39 and 8.48 The number of published articles per year during the pe-
to 8.75% acidity. During storage at room temperature, there riod from 2007 to 2017, using the keywords "babassu and
were no significant changes in the physico-chemical charac- mesocarp", can be verified in the Fig. (4). A total of 26 pub-
teristics and there was no microbial growth in the two formu- lications were obtained from the Web of Science database, in
lations. As for the sensorial analysis, the formulations were 2015 was observed the highest number of publications to-
well accepted by the tasters, reaching high acceptance rates taled 07.
for all the sensorial attributes evaluated as color, aroma, fla- The main area of concentration of articles published in
vor and texture, with more than 80% of acceptability index the Web of Science was Agriculture, followed by Veterinary
[19]. Medicine and Chemistry. Three articles were published in
No published articles were found that used the babassu the area of Food Science and Technology (Fig. 5). In the
mesocarp flour in biscuits. In relation to the cereal bars, only article published in 2015 [20] was simulated an in vitro gas-
a deposited patent, already described previously and this trointestinal digestion of babassu mesocarp, in the absence
publication cited above, which used the almond of babassu and in the presence of milk. The lignin was used to evaluate
and not the mesocarp. Therefore, publications that used ba- the bioaccessibility of copper, iron and zinc, the results of
baçu mesocarp meal in substitution for wheat with excellent which showed that the bioaccessibility of these minerals in
nutritional results were found in the foods selected for analy- the milk was not influenced by mesocarp.
sis only for bread production, with the need for more food Maniglia and Tapia-Blácido [21] published a study on
products being developed with this raw material, As well as the isolation of babassu mesocarp starch to optimize their
a wider dissemination of existing products. chemical composition, crystallinity, particle size, and func-
Food Products with Mesocarp Babassu Current Nutrition & Food Science, 2018, Vol. 14, No. 0 5

Fig. (4). Number of publications per year for "babassu and mesocarp" in the Web of Science database.

Fig. (5). Record of publications by concentration area for "Orbignya and mesocarp" and “babassu and mesocarp”, in the Web of Science
database.

tional properties. The isolated starch presented a higher anti- line. They also presented antioxidant activity, being a great
oxidant activity, due to the increased bioavailability of phe- option as packaging or coating for foods that are sensitive to
nolic compounds, therefore making it a functional ingredient oxidation [22].
to be applied as a raw material in food production.
It was found in this prospective study that researchers
Another article in the Food Technology field showed that publish more articles than patents, which can be explained
the babassu mesocarp can still be used to produce biodegrad- by the lack of information about intellectual property, espe-
able films, due to their chemical composition (amylose, lip- cially in the Food Technology area. Thus, there are still a
ids, fibers and total phenolic compounds). The characteristics few studies published about the babassu mesocarp, and there
presented by these biofilms were: stiffness, less soluble, less is an open field for new proposals of innovation for human
permeable to water vapor, less hydrophilic and more crystal- nutrition with this raw material, which is nutritionally rich
6 Current Nutrition & Food Science, 2018, Vol. 14, No. 0 Souza et al.

and has a high technological potential, especially for those Ehrlich. Dissertação de mestrado. Saúde e Ambiente: Universidade
who have celiac disease. Federal do Maranhão, São Luís, 2008.
[6] Nonato RC, Ferreira PRB, Sa LLF, Oliveira FA. ; Nunes LCC,
Albuquerque WF. Composição centesimal e fitoquímica do meso-
4. CONCLUSION & FUTURE TRENDS carpo de babaçu (Orbignya sp) de regiões do Piauí e Maranhão.
Biofar: Revista de Biologia e Farmácia 2013; 09: 130.
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Pharmazie-An International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
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cereal bars, besides being an alternative for people with ce- [8] Mello, J. C., Nóbrega, F. C. G., Furtado, J. A. L., Muratori, M. C.
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approved the project "Mini social franchises in the produc- barra nutritive tendo como ingredients derivados da mandioca, mel,
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