Humans generally require more than 22 different minerals for healthy growth and function, and any of these deficiencies contribute to malnutrition issues (Khan et al., 2015). Among them, some are required in large amounts and are called macro elements, such as Calcium (Ca), Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), and Sodium (Na), while others are needed in trace or ultra-trace quantities and are called micro elements, such as Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Nickel (Ni), Zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), etc. Micronutrient deficiencies, such as iron deficiency, impaired immunity to infections causing varied degrees of impairment in cognitive ability, reduced work capacity, pregnancy difficulties, and so on, are serious public health issues in many developing countries (Batra and Seth 2002). Infants should get special attention since they require enough micronutrients for normal growth and development (Rush 2000). But the excessively elevated dose of these elements (even essential elements) compared to the usual dosage can cause toxic effects on cells. Whereas some elements like Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd) are non-essential elements and can cause toxic effects even in trace amounts (Magdas et al. 2012). Therefore, it is essential to have a fundamental understanding of "what we require, what we eat, and the amount we consume."
Nowadays, impoverished nations are suffering from a higher risk of illness, stunting, underweight, and infant mortality due to a lack of access to nutrient-rich food (Webb et al. 2018). But the fact that these developing countries have tropical and sub-tropical regions blessed with a great diversity of indigenous, underutilised fruit species with high nutritional content (Rahman and Rahman 2014). So, the problem is not really associated with a real shortage but rather due to the lack of sufficient information regarding the composition of bioactive compounds in several endemic crops (hence, they fall under the category of underutilised or neglected crops), which results in a low availability of these products in domestic markets and local consumption. Hence, diverse use of these local neglected fruit species in our daily diet would be a solution for this problem and would also make a significant contribution to improving nutrition (Hunter et al. 2019). To benefit from the nutritional and economic values of these underutilised fruit species, the nutritional constitution of these fruits should be well assessed and documented. For instance, most of the Artocarpus species are rich in nutrients and are used as a source of food and in traditional medicinal practises in the treatment of diabetes, diarrhoea, dermatitis, malarial fever, asthma, tapeworm infection, anaemia, and many other diseases. The important species belonging to this genus are Artocarpus heterophyllus, Artocarpus altilis, Artocarpus hirsutus, Artocarpus lakoocha, and Artocarpus camansi. These species are known to contain many potential bioactive compounds and minerals that possess many nutraceutical qualities (Hari et al. 2014). But most of the species are less utilised by the scientific world, and only limited literature is available regarding the nutritional composition of the fruits.
One among them is Artocarpus hirsutus, an endemic fruit species in the southern Western Ghats of Peninsular India, commonly known as wild jack (Matthew et al. 2006). Wild jack should be recognised as a minor fruit species with excellent nutritional value and should be investigated as a prospective fruit crop species. Hence, the current study focused on the estimation of the mineral composition of fruit components (flesh, seed, and seed coat) of Artocarpus hirsutus, followed by a comparative study on the proximate mineral composition of A. hirsutus fruit with values obtained from fruits of other related Artocarpus species.
Several methods are currently available to estimate the mineral element content, and a suitable one is selected based on the sample's digestion. For instance, techniques including Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (Liang et al. 2016), Inductively coupled Plasma-optical emission spectrometry (Nyaba and Nomngongo 2020), and Inductively coupled Plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS; Chen et al., 2020) utilise open and microwave-assisted sample digestion, while the energy dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (Hondrogiannis et al. 2012) technique considers dried powdered samples. In addition, the ICP-MS method is the most popular choice for element estimation since it has high sensitivity, can detect several elements, and requires less sample preparation (Wang et al. 2017). Hence, the present study utilised the ICP-MS technique for the estimation of mineral content and composition of fruit components (flesh, seed, and seed coat) of Artocarpus hirsutus.
