Avaliação das características físico-químicas das amêndoas da castanha do Brasil (bertholletia excelsa) e da castanha portuguesa (castanea sativa mill)

Abstract

Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsea) and Portuguese (Castanea Sativa Mill) are cultivated in Brazil, and its almonds consumed mainly in natura, which are rich in minerals, vitamins and nutrients. Thus, the objective was to evaluate and compare physical and physicochemical characteristics of Brazil nut and Portuguese cashew nuts. Six kg of nuts of each type were analyzed, through their physical characteristics as height, larger and smaller diameter, and physico-chemical characteristics such as pH, total acidity titratable, ash, moisture, protein and lipids. The analyzes were carried out in the Food Technology at the Federal Rural University of Amazonia. On the other hand, Portuguese chestnut were carried out at the Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Porto. Applied Microsoft Excel software for analysis of mean and standard deviation. Shortly after Student's t test was used to compare the Brazilian and then a multivariate analysis (PCA and HCA) was carried out through the Minitab 16.0 software. Through the results it was possible to confirm the nuts in all analyzed parameters. Where Brazilian nuts are rich in protein (14.58%) and lipids (64.07%), and Portuguese chestnut has a high concentration of moisture (50%), low protein concentration (7.10%), but it has a high biological value. In addition, according to the literature is rich in dietary fiber.