Cordia myxa, known as gonda or lasora is an important multipurpose fruit plant belonging to the family Boraginaceae. It grows well in arid to semi-arid regions of north India and other isoclimatic regions the world over. Its distribution extends in tropical and subtropical regions of India especially in dry deciduous forest of Rajasthan and western ghat in Mynmar. The plant is a small to moderate sized deciduous tree with a short trunk and spreading crown. The flowers are short stalked, hermaphrodite and white in color which open in morning around 9.0 hours. It takes about three months from flowering to full ripening of the fruits; however, they are harvested at mature green stage much before full ripening upon turning the fruit colour from green to yellowish green or yellowish pink. Though, the fruits are very sweet at full ripening, they hardly have commercial value due to high content of mucilage. The fruit pericarp is edible part while endocarp is viscous. The unripe fruits of C. myxa are used as vegetable and pickled with raw mango. The Fruits can also be preserved after dehydration for subsequent uses. The picking of the fruits at right stage of maturity is necessary not only for better nutrient value, but also for getting higher yield and better market price. The fruit pulp was found rich in crude protein, fiber, carbohydrates and minerals (Aberoumand 2011). The fruits and other plant parts also have curative properties in skin diseases, dropsy, dysentery, dyspepsia, cholera and headache etc. Trees are mostly planted around farm as wind break and as shelter belt but for past two decades they are also planted as planned orchards as the fruits fetch high profits. Looking to its drought resistance, limited water requirement and multiple uses, systematic evaluation and ex-situ conservation were carried out at Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur Rajasthan, India for further improvement of Cordia myxa. Collection was made on selective sampling strategy and each collection was allotted individual accession number. Out of various collections, fourteen diverse accessions were selected for characterization study (Meghwal et al. 2014). After long term evaluation of vegetatively propagated genotypes along with check population, four elite genotypes i.e. CZCM-2011, CZCM-2021, CZCM-2012, CZCM-2025 were selected as improved genotypes with respect to production and phytochemicals. Most of the accessions did not show significant variations with respect to vegetative growth parameters such as plant height, canopy and morphological characteristics of leaves and flowers but significant variations were recorded in fruit yield in long term evaluation (Meghwal 2018). One of the accessions i.e. CZCM-2025 was released as Maru Samridhi, a new high yielding variety recently (Meghwal et al. 2019). The fruits of other three accessions used in this study were also consistently high yielder as compared to other germplasm accessions. In literature, little or no information exists on nutritional properties, total phenol content and antioxidant activity of fruits of C. myxa at different maturity stages. Hence, this study was undertaken to derive the information on these aspects.
Previous studies on nutritional composition of the fruits of Cordia myxa showed that they contained 8.32% crude protein,57.08% carbohydrate 6.7% ash, 25.7% fibre and 2.2% fat (Al-Snafi 2016). Mineral analysis of the fruits is reported to contain 1.62mg/g sodium, 7.83 mg/g potassium, 0.46mg/g calcium, 0.35mg/g zinc and 0.51mg/g iron (Aberoumand 2011)
The free radicals are molecular species having unpaired electron(s) in their atomic structure which can have independent existence (Jesburgar and Richardson 1991). The presence of an unpaired electron makes these species unstable and strongly reactive. The oxygen free radicals are most abundant free radicals in biological system. Singlet oxygen is another radical that owes its origin from oxygen. In biological system, the reactive oxygen species are generated enroute mitochondria and also as an intermediate product in several enzymatic reaction. These free radicals can be toxic to biomolecules such as lipid, protein and nucleic acids. The natural antioxidants present in the living systems try to neutralize them but if they are not effectively neutralized, they might harm to body leading to disease like conditions (Przedborski and Jackson-Lewis 1998). In recent years, antioxidant properties of fruits, vegetables and medicinal plant are studied with renewed interest for finding solution of several diseases in human beings. Phenolic compounds are naturally produced in the plants during secondary metabolism. The fruits and vegetables also exhibit strong antioxidant and antimicrobial properties due to phenolic substances (Alesiani 2010). Several other compounds such as flavonoids, tannins and proanthocyanidins might also act as antioxidant for protection against many diseases. The quantitative and qualitative composition of phenolic compounds in the fruits is determined by genotype, agro techniques and environmental conditions under which they are grown (Miletic et al. 2012). The extracts of different plant parts which are good source of phenolic compounds are finding uses in food and pharmaceutical industries because of their nutraceutical values. Some previous studies report the presence of phenolic and antioxidant activities from accessions from naturally occurring trees C. myxa without any background of fruit yield and growing conditions. However, in our study, we have quantified the total phenol content and free radical scavenging activity from well tested improved genotypes (developed and maintained at our research farm under similar agrotechniques) at different stages of fruit maturity.