Biological Active Ecuadorian Mango ‘Tommy Atkins’ Ingredients—An Opportunity to Reduce Agrowaste

Mango is a commercially important tropical fruit. During its processing, peel and seed kernel are discarded as waste but they could be recovered as an excellent and cost effective source of health-promoting ingredients. This study aimed to characterize some of them, including carotenoids like the provitamin A β-carotene and lutein, with an interest beyond its role in eye health. Other health-promoting compounds like tocopherols and polyphenols were also evaluated, as well as the in vitro antioxidant capacity of mango by-products. Regarding isoprenoids, α-tocopherol was mainly found in the peels and carotenoids concentration was higher in the pulps. β-carotene was the most abundant carotene in pulp and seed kernel, whereas peel was the only source of lutein, with violaxanthin the most abundant xanthophyll in the different mango organs tested. With regard to polyphenols, peels exhibited greater variability in its phenolic composition, being the total content up to 85 and 10 times higher than the pulp and seed kernels, respectively. On the other hand, peels also stood out for being a very rich source of mangiferin. Seed kernels and peels showed higher antioxidant capacity values than the pulps. These results contribute to the valorization of mango by-products as new natural ingredients for the pharma and food industries.The authors would like to express gratitude for the funding received from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and CSIC–VITRI with the Project I-COOP+2014 (Ref. COOPB20125) and Escuela Politécnica Nacional (PIS 12-21 and PIMI 14-14). Part of this work was carried out as a collaboration within the framework of the CYTED Program (Refs. 112RT0460-CORNUCOPIA and 112RT0445-IBERCAROT, Thematic Networks). Quality technical work from Ms. Ana Benítez González (Universidad de Sevilla) is acknowledged. AGR also thanks the Ecuadorian SENECYT for the Prometeo Postdoctoral Grants (Ref. PROMETEO-CEB-018-2015)Peer reviewe