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Biochemical Composition of Pulp and Seed of Wild Jack (Artocarpus hirsutus

Lam.) Fruit

Article  in  Plant Foods for Human Nutrition · August 2020

DOI: 10.1007/s11130-020-00849-5

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Plant Foods for Human Nutrition
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-020-00849-5

SHORT COMMUNICATION

Biochemical Composition of Pulp and Seed of Wild Jack (Artocarpus

hirsutus Lam.) Fruit
Shailendra Solanki 1 & Rakesh Bhardwaj 2 & Ramesh Vasudeva 3 & Sushil Chourey 1 & Sunil Archak 2

Accepted: 13 August 2020

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
Wild jack (Artocarpus hirsutus Lam.) is an endemic perennial tree of Western Ghats of India. Wild jack, a timber purpose tree, is
distributed in several Kaan community forests. Although local people consume unripe as well as fully ripe fruits and roasted
seeds, wild jack is unrecognized as a fruit tree. It remains almost undocumented with respect to nutritional value in terms of
biochemical composition. We carried out biochemical profiling of ripe fruits and seeds of wild jack. Every 100 g fruit pulp was
composed of 12 g total soluble sugars, 16.7 g total starch, 441 μg total carotenoids (beta carotene equivalent) and 8.1 mg ascorbic
acid, 0.4 mg GAE total phenol and showed total cupric reducing antioxidant activity of 1.9 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE).
Every 100 g whole seed flour was composed of 6 g total soluble sugars, 6.6 g starch, 9.9 g total proteins, 3 mg GAE total phenol
and 3.1 mg GAE total antioxidant capacity. Biochemical profiles of wild jackfruit and seeds were comparable with those of other
Artocarpus fruits like jackfruit and bread fruit. Our findings suggest that wild jack deserves to be promoted as a minor fruit
species of high nutritional importance and must be considered as a potential fruit crop species for further research.

Keywords Artocarpus hirsutus . Biochemical profile . Underutilized . Western Ghats . Wild jack

Target 2.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals aims to end
all forms of malnutrition by 2030. This cannot be achieved
merely by focusing on the accessibility to food grains. It re-
quires augmenting the diet with minor plant species that re-
quire negligible inputs and are available locally [1]. Research
and improvement in perennial minor fruit species will ensure
nutritional security in situ to indigenous communities.
A. hirsutus Lam. (wild jack), is a perennial fruit tree, endemic
to Western Ghats of India [2]. Unlike well-known Artocarpus
fruit tree species— A. heterophyllus (jackfruit), A. altilis
(bread fruit) and A. integer (Cempedak)— wild jack has been
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article
(https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-020-00849-5) contains supplementary
material, which is available to authorized users.
* Sunil Archak
sunil.archak@icar.gov.in
1
Division of Plant Genetic Resources, Indian Agricultural Research
Institute, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, India
2
ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa Campus,
New Delhi, India
3
College of Forestry, University of Agricultural Sciences, Sirsi, India
mainly a timber purpose tree along with established traditional
medicinal uses.
Wild jack is underutilized as a fruit tree. Traditionally, local
people consume unripe fruits as vegetable; fleshy pulp for
making crispy crackers and as fully ripe sweet-sour fruits.
Roasted and salted seeds are eaten as snacks. However, wild
jack remains almost undocumented with respect to nutritional
value in terms of biochemical composition. We report here
biochemical profile of fresh fruits and seeds of wild jack.
During the March–May 2017 trimester, five samples were
collected from the Kaan community forests of Karnataka
(14.169, 74.982, 592; 14.169, 74.982, 593; 14.15, 75.081,
600; 13.53, 75.105, 671; 13.554, 75.173, 750) and two samples
were collected from ex situ conserved site at NBPGR Regional
Station, Thrissur, Kerala (10.31, 76.17, 40). Values in paren-
theses represent latitude, longitude, and altitude (m). For a
quick evaluation of fresh pulp from mature and ripened fruits,
we measured moisture, total soluble sugars, total antioxidant
capacity GAE (TAC), total phenol GAE (TP), starch, total ca-
rotenoids and ascorbic acid. Seed flour prepared out of oven
dried seeds including brown endosperm was used for the esti-
mation of moisture, starch, total soluble sugars, protein content,
total antioxidant capacity GAE (TAC), and total phenol GAE
(TP). Standard methods of analysis, including those prescribed

Fig. 1 Biochemical composition of (a) ripe fruit and (b) seeds of wild
jack, jackfruit and breadfruit. Jackfruit estimates were taken from
Longvah et al. [4] and breadfruit estimates were compiled from Ragone
by AOAC International [3], with minor modifications were
used for the estimation of biochemical composition. Data were
recorded from two fruits and five seeds per sample. The results
were expressed as mean ± standard deviation.
Nutritional value of wild jack was ascertained by determining
the biochemical profiles of fruit and seeds, and by comparing
with the profiles of other Artocarpus fruits like jackfruit and
bread fruit. Mean values of basic nutritional parameters of wild
jack (p ≤ 0.05) are shown in Fig. 1. In addition, fruit pulp and
seeds showed TAC of 1.9 mg and 3.1 mg GAE, as well as total
phenol content of 0.4 mg and 3 mg GAE, respectively. As a
typical recalcitrant species, wild jack seeds had comparatively
high moisture, high TAC and high TP. On the other hand, fruit
pulp was composed of double the amount of starch and TSS
compared to seed flour. Significant differences were observed
across samples and collection sites (Supplementary Fig. 1).
Jackfruit and breadfruit are two of the popular fruits belonging
to wild jack genus Artocarpus. Indigenous cultivars are tradition-
ally grown and consumed in many regions. Research shows that
these fruits are rich in very important nutrients. Sole purpose of
comparison was to appreciate if wild jack measures up to the
established Artocarpus fruit species in terms of major nutritional
attributes. Although breadfruit showed significantly higher
values, biochemical attributes of wild jackfruit and seeds were
realistically comparable with the range of jackfruit and bread fruit
estimates (Fig. 1). It may be noted that profiles compared were
those of well-known cultivars of jackfruit and breadfruit unlike
trees of wild jack occurring in the wild.
In wild jack, ‘plus trees’ for timber qualities are known; but
‘plus trees’ for nutritional content need to be identified based
on extensive profiling and plantations with the progeny may
serve as a superior source of fruits for the native community. If
protein and carotenoid contents contribute to the nutritional
security of native consumers; antioxidant capacity becomes
important to niche urban consumers. It is imperative that wild
jack be promoted as a minor fruit species of high nutritional
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Plant Foods Hum Nutr
[5] and citations thereof. All the values are rounded to first decimal. Y-
axes plotted on log10 scale
importance and must be considered as a potential fruit crop
species for further research.
Acknowledgements Authors acknowledge the help provided by Dr.
Shrikant Gunaga (College of Forestry, Sirsi) and Dr. Joseph John
(ICAR-NBPGR Regional Station, Thrissur).
Funding Information Shailendra Solanki was supported by Fellowship
of Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. Sunil Archak was
supported by ICAR National Fellowship.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Conflict of Interest Authors declare that they have no Conflict of
Interest that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.
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tional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.