RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The international marketing of native Brazilian fruits may benefit from research into discrimination between plants with particular properties. Plants with certain characteristics have strong potential for use in agroindustry and for the development of new processed products. In the current study, 12 uvaia plants (Eugenia pyriformis Cambess), native to Brazil, were geographically discriminated by chemometric methods, using nutritional composition, physicochemical characterization, bioactive compounds, and antioxidant capacity data. RESULTS: Uvaia fruits presented good nutritional value, with a high moisture and carbohydrate content. All fruits presented a pH value lower than 4, being classified as highly acidic, and the total soluble solids (°Brix) ranged between 2.90 and 9.80. Some plants had a higher vitamin C content, and all the plants had a high bioactive compound content (phenolic and flavonoids) and antioxidant capacity in 1,1-difenil-2-picrilhidrazil (DPPH), 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. Hydroethanolic solution was the best extraction solvent tested when compared with water and ethanol. Using principal component analysis, it was possible to discriminate among the plants in five different groups; however, just one group was responsible for higher antioxidant compound content. CONCLUSION: In this work, 12 native uvaia plants were discriminated by their geographical origin using a chemometric approach. Genetic improvement based on natural selection could be accomplished with some of the plants to improve the quality of uvaia pulp and to develop new cultivars. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.