The effect of maturity and season on health-related bioactive compounds in wild harvested fruit of Terminalia ferdinandiana (Exell)

This study reports changes in the concentrations of important health-related bioactive compounds (vitamin C and ellagic acid) and morphology of wild harvested Kakadu plum fruits that were collected during three harvest seasons and four maturities. The results showed that fruit weight increased, whereas fruit length and width changed slightly with the advance in maturity. Vitamin C increased up to 20 folds (from 1.2 to 21.2% dry weight [DW]) from immature to mature stage, whereas ellagic acid decreased approximately three times (from 6.5 to 2.1% DW). Similar trends were observed over the three harvest seasons studied. A positive correlation between fruit weight and vitamin C, whereas a negative correlation with ellagic acid was observed, indicating that maturity plays an important role in contributing to the variation of ellagic acid and vitamin C. Season also had an effect and showed the influences of rainfall, temperature and solar exposure on the biosynthesis of vitamin C and ellagic acid.