Comparison of Total Carotenoid Content, Ascorbic Acid and Radical Scavenging Activity of Three Indian Mango Varieties

Mango is one of the most important tropical fruits and India ranks first in its world production. During the processing of mango, mainly for mango pulp, peel is a by-product. Peel forms about 15-20% of the whole fruit and at present it is a waste product and its disposal has become a great problem. With a view to exploit mango peel as a source of valuable components, in the present study, carotenoids, ascorbic acid content and radical scavenging activity of peels of three Indian mango varieties, namely, Deshehari, Chausa and Fazli were determined. The carotenoids contents in these peels ranged from 4.8 to 6.09 mg/g dry peel. Ascorbic acid content ranged from 20.21 to 42.07 mg/100g dry peel. Radical scavenging activity was not signifi- cantly different among these three varieties of mango.