Abstract—The environment is continually deteriorating. Biodegradable wastes increase with increasing population. The problem in wastes affect the integrity of the earth. Problems in health and nutrition are common. Finding important chemicals from fruit peels like total sugars or carbohydrates, as well as alkaloids will help address daily challenges in nutrition and health. This study aimed to determine the phytochemicals present in the peels of the selected fruits obtained from Manila, Philippines. Specifically it aimed to determine the presence of total sugars and alkaloids. Further it aimed to obtain the amounts of total sugars and alkaloids in the fruit peel samples analyzed. All fruit peels from rambutan (Nepheleum lappacium), lanzones (Lansium domesticum), pomelo (Citrus grandis), longgan (Dimocarpus longana), dalandan (Citrus nobilis), ponkan (Citrus reticulata), mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) qualitatively showed the presence of reducing sugars as well as glycosides. Pomelo, rambutan, longgan, and mangosteen contain tannins. Lanzones contains alkaloids. Sugars and alkaloids for lanzones gave the highest intensity in the phytochemical screening done. It was only lanzones which gave positive results to all tests related to alkaloids. The amounts of total sugars in both the diluted and stock solution (20% decoction) fruit peel samples showed a range of 1.801 to more than 164 ug/ml concentrations. The alkaloidal contents of lanzones showed 0.0312 mg/ml level at 1:9 dilution. Since the samples studied showed the presence of heavy metals, although still within the allowed limit by USP and NF, it is best to decontaminate the fruit peels or isolate and purify the active ingredient/s from it prior to the actual preparation of the pharmacologic and nutritional products.

Index Terms—Fruit peels, medicinal preparations, nutritional supplements, Philippines

The authors are with the University of the Philippines, Manila (e-mail: graloheus@yahoo.com).

Cite: Judilynn N. Solidum, "Potential Nutritional and Medicinal Sources from Fruit Peels in Manila, Philippines," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 2, no. 4, pp.  270-274, 2012.