Servicios personalizados
texto en 
Inglés (pdf)
Articulo en XML
Referencias del artículo
Enviar articulo por email
Citado por SciELO 
Similares en
SciELO 
Permalink
Plukenetia volubilis Linneo (Sacha inch) is a climbing, semi-woody and perennial shrub, from Euphorbiaceae (Euforbiáceas) family and Plukenetia genus, constituted by 19 species. It is native of the Peruvian Amazonia and it is also known as Sacha yuchi, Sacha yuchiqui and wild peanut. It is located in other places from America, as Bolivia, Lesser Antilles and Surinam, territories which fulfill the ideal edaphoclimatic requirements for the plant growing (González et al. 2022).
This legume has lenticular seeds, rich in oil, proteins and polyunsaturated fatty acids. In addition, has a secondary compound, which could confer to the seeds certain restrictions due to their anti-nutritional implications. However, some of these substances have beneficial effects on the animal’s health and welfare. Generally, most of the seeds of this plant are for oil production, which generate a residual cake as byproduct, with high protein content of high nutritional value and other basic nutrients for animal metabolism (Henao-Zambrano and Barreto-Cruz 2016).
In Cuba, this plant was introduced on 2015, from that moment it agricultural development begin and later the oil extraction process. With the certification of best production practices, the Centro de Investigaciones de Plantas Proteicas and Productos Bionaturales was dedicated to oil production, but the chemical composition of the residual cake for its use as livestock food is unknown. That is why the objective of this study was to chemically characterize the Plukenetia volubilis (Sacha inchi) cake cultivated in Cuba.
The seeds were collected in the establish plantations in El Pitirre farm, from Pinar del Río, located in the western region of Cuba. The cake making was performed in Planta Procesadora de Sacha inchi, from Centro de Investigaciones de Plantas Proteicas and Productos Bionaturales. The seeds were shelled to obtain the almonds that were used in the pressing process. The oil extraction was carried out by the seed pressing method at room temperature and a cylinder press with the PO.III.49 from the factory was used. Later of repeating the re-extraction process four times, the residual cake was release and stored in cleaning bags.
The cake was obtained from three lots (bags) of production in the second half of the year 2020. The sampling was directly performed in the bags where the cake was stored, keeped in cold chamber. Three points of each bag were sampling at different depths and these portions were joined to make a representative sample of 1kg per each lot. The material was dried in an air circulation oven at 60 ºC for 72h and milled to a 1 mm particle size.
The content of dry matter (DM), ash and crude protein (CP) was quantified according to the methodology described by the AOAC (2019).The neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) , lignin and cellulose were calculated in accordance with the procedure proposed by Goering and van Soest (1970).
The macro-elements were determined from the acid digestion of ashes. For the Ca and K quantification an atomic absorption equipment was used, according to the procedures of its Training Manual (Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, series WFX-210).The burner height was 10mm. The gases composition was air- acetylene and the flow 4.5 mm/min. The phosphorous determination was performed according to Amaral (1972) methodology.
The secondary metabolites were determined through qualitative chemical tests, according to Miranda and Cuellar (2000). To carry out the phytochemical sieve, the samples were submitted to an extraction process by maceration with petroleum ether 40-60 and ethanol 90 % v/v during 48h. Later, they were filtered by gravity and the filtrate was stored in amber bottles. Subsequently, the soluble substances in each extract were determined and the crosses system was used to show the presence or absence of metabolites.
A descriptive analysis was performed and the statistics mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation (%) and minimum and maximum values were determined. The data were processed with the statistical package Infostat, version 2012 (Di Rienzo et al. 2012).
In the agribusiness byproducts, the industrial process characteristics which originate them, define, to a large extent, their composition and nutritional quality. The chemical characterization of the evaluated Sacha inchi cake is show in table 1.
Table 1 Chemical characterization of P. volubilis (Sacha inchi) cake from the western of Cuba
| Indicators, % DM | Mean, n=3 | SD | CV, % | Minimum | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DM | 91.86 | 0.34 | 037 | 91.47 | 92.09 |
| Ash | 5.05 | 0.06 | 1.19 | 4.99 | 5.11 |
| Ca | 1.56 | 0.07 | 4.37 | 1.48 | 1.61 |
| P | 0.68 | 0.03 | 3.68 | 0.66 | 0.71 |
| K | 0.52 | 0.02 | 2.96 | 0.50 | 0.53 |
| CP | 54.41 | 1.25 | 2.30 | 52.97 | 55.25 |
| NDF | 30.97 | 0.34 | 1.08 | 30.62 | 31.29 |
| ADF | 11.84 | 1.85 | 15.59 | 10.29 | 13.88 |
| Lignin | 3.54 | 1.11 | 31.36 | 2.43 | 4.65 |
| Cellulose | 8.04 | 1.94 | 24.15 | 6.44 | 10.22 |
| Hemicellulose | 19.13 | 1.94 | 10.16 | 17.12 | 21.00 |
This waste has inorganic compounds, which reach adequate concentrations to satisfy the animal’s requirements. The results in ash were similar to those showed (4.8 % DM) by Ruiz et al. (2013) in the evaluation of the residual cake of seeds cultivated in Peru.
It was of interest the high content of CP the cake showed, which can be considered an important source of protein. The values found in this experiment are higher up than those mentions by Benítez et al. (2018) and Alcivar et al. (2020). Likewise, there were lower to the value of 65.6 % DM, informed by Díaz et al. (2021) when evaluating the chemical composition of the Sacha inchi cake after a cooking treatment. The detected differences can be associated to factors like the used plant ecotype, the seed harvest season and their conservation method, the postharvest labor and the oil extraction process which was used (Ruiz et al. 2013).
However, the CP performance, previously described, should be analyzed that in the nitrogenous compounds fraction are the alkaloids, non protein aminoacids, amines and other inorganic nitrogenous compounds that can overestimate the protein content. In future studies it could be advisable to take into account with true protein values, which allow distinguishing the amount of non protein nitrogen in the cake.
The results in NDF and ADF were low, if they are compared with cakes from other oleaginous plants (Solomon 2018). However, the NDF founded in this study were higher (16.64 % DM) to those of Alcivar et al. (2020), while the ADF and Lig (12.70 and 1.25 % DM) were in the range reported by this authors for the cake from seeds cultivated in Ecuador. The levels of the cell wall are in the ranges of 12-30 % DM, that is why they should not influence negatively on food intake and nutrients degradability.
Despite the nutritive goodness of this evaluated byproduct, the presence of secondary metabolites should be a limitation for their use as food in some animal’s species. The secondary compounds of Sacha inchi cake cultivated in Cuba are shown in table 2.
Table 2 Secondary compounds in Sacha inchi cake from the western of Cuba
| Secondary metabolites | Test | Reactions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ether | Ethanol | ||
| Alkaloids | Dragendorff | ++ | ++ |
| Saponins | Foam | - | - |
| Tannins | Ferric chloride | + | |
| Terpenes | Lieberman-Burchard | +++ | +++ |
| Amines, aminoacids | Nihidrine | +++ | |
| Flavonoids | Shinoda | + | |
| Mucilages | Mucilages | + | |
| Quinones | Bontrager | - | - |
+++ Abundant, ++ Moderate, + Low, - Absent
The chemical tests allow identifying the presence of several functional groups in the extracts, which correspond to alkaloids, amines, terpenes, tannins, flavonids and mucilages. On the other hand, the saponins and quinones were not identified with the performed tests. They could be show with the use of higher concentrations of the extract or with other type of analytical method. The possibility of the presence or not of a compound is related with their concentration and association with others, its solubility in the solvent and the extractive process used.
Ancuta and Sonia (2020) highlighted the saponins as one of the main secondary metabolites in cakes from oleaginous plants. Studies performed in Sacha inchi cake reported the abundant presence of this metabolite (Ruiz et al. 2013). Therefore, the absence of saponins in this experiment could be related with structural changes or with the elimination of some secondary compounds during the oil extraction process (Sá et al. 2021).
In this study, there was abundant presence of terpenes and α amine groups. The alkaloids were showed in moderate way and, in lesser extent, the mucilages, flavonoids and tannins. The results were similar to those showed by Alcivar et al. (2020). According to Henao- Zambrano and Barreto-Cruz (2016), the Sacha inchi, as other plants from Euphorbiaceae family, is chemically characterized of having secondary metabolites with high diversity of chemical characteristics. These authors refer among the main groups terpenes, saponins and tannins.
It is significant the presence of phenolic compounds in a low way. In previous studies it was showed that these substances are responsible of most of the biological activities of the Sacha inchi cake (Muñoz et al. 2013).
Despite of the beneficial effects of some of the analyzed secondary compounds, when they are in high proportions in the diet can reduce the maximum use of nutrients (especially proteins, vitamins or minerals). This aspect should be considered because it decreases the nutritive value of the food.
It is considered that the Sacha inchi cake cultivated in Cuba is a byproduct with high nutritional quality, which has high CP values, moderate fibrous compounds contents, adequate levels of ashes and phytocompounds that should positively has effect on health, which confirm it potentialities as an alternative food source.
