Characterization of Health-Promoting Polymethoxylated Flavones from Jamaican and Mexican Citrus Peels

The polymethoxylated flavones (PMFs) are flavonoids that are almost exclusively found in citrus peel and display potent anti-hypercholesterolemic, anticancer and anti-atherosclerotic properties. The aim of the present study was to characterize the polymethoxylated flavones (PMFs) in Jamaican and Mexican citrus peels by high-performance liquid chromatography with the view to devising ways of converting citrus wastes to value-added products for use in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. The PMFs were extracted from sun dried citrus peels with reagent grade methanol. Analyses were carried out by reverse-phase HPLC and UV detection. Our findings indicated that Jamaican and Mexican Citrus peels contained appreciable quantities of the PMFs - the Jamaican Ortanique peel contained the highest quantity of the PMFs (34,393 +/- 272 ppm), followed by Tangerine (28,389 +/- 343 ppm) and Mexican Sweet Orange (21,627 +/- 494 ppm). Jamaica produces citrus fruits on a large scale that generates large quantities of citrus peels and by-products, which are generally discarded or under-utilized. These Citrus peels and other by-products of Citrus processing could therefore be used to generate relatively large quantities of PMFs that could serve as food additives of natural origin or as pharmaceutical and nutraceutical supplements for ameliorating metabolic disorders that are common in the Caribbean.