European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

AN OVERVIEW OF ACAI BERRY (EUTERPE OLERACEA) AND ITS PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES

Humera Fatima* and Syed Zubair Hussain

ABSTRACT

Acai berry (Euterpe oleracea) is a species of palm tree which comes under the family Arecaceae which is mainly cultivate for its fruit. It is a fruit which comes under the class of berries. Berries is defined as a common edible fruit which is rich in nutritional compounds such as anthocyanins, flavonoids, and phenolic compounds. The Acai berry has been extensively studied for its various nutritional and pharmacological properties. Acai berry is purple colour berry which is natively grown in various areas of Amazon area in South America. The nutritional contents present in acai berry are calories, fats, carbohydrates, proteins, dietary fibre, vitamins etc. acai berry has been widely investigsted for its chemical composition the most commonly found chemicals are anthocyanins, flavonoids, phenols and glycosides. The other constituents are fatty acids, minerals, amino acids, carotenoids and vitamins. Due to its chemical composition it has various pharmacological activities such as antioxidant activity, anti inflammatory, neuroprotective activity, anticancer effect, it is also used to cure renal diseases. It is used in cosmetics and also in food industry.

Keywords: Acai berry, Euterpe oleracea, anthocyanins, flavonoids, antioxidant activity, anti inflammatory activity.