**2. Nutritional and chemical composition**

Carnauba wax consists of complex mixture regarding long-chain fatty acids, free alcohols, esters, aromatic acids, aliphatic acids, triterpene diols, cinnamic acids, proteins, and hydroxy acids and ω-hydroxycarboxylic free acids [10–14]. Recently, one triterpene carnaubadiol was also isolated and identified present in the leaves were reported. The inorganic compounds existing such as aluminum, copper, magnesium, zinc, manganese, calcium, iron, and sodium [15]. Recent studies continued to assess more genetic resource of carnauba wax while revealing a more extensive variety in the nutritional composition as described in the following sections.

## **2.1 Pectin**

*Phytochemicals in Human Health*

greenish-gray pigmentation.

among others.

activities aimed at agroforestry and industrial purposes. Despite its importance, Caatinga vegetation is a type of vegetation adapted to the aridity of the soil and the scarcity of water in the region. They are classified depending on the natural conditions of the areas and different characteristics like strata: arboreal: with species ranging between 8 and 12 m in height; shrub: with species ranging between 2 and 5 m in height; herbaceous: with species below 2 m in height [2]. *Copernicia prunifera* (Miller) H. E. Moore (Arecaceae) family, a typical desert flora animal categories and exclusively located of areas through the Caatinga biome [3]. It is also known as "Tree of life", *carnauba*, *carandauba*, *carnaba*, *carnaubeira*, *caranaiba*, *carnaúva*,

The carnauba is a palm tree very common in the northeast region whose main feature is its height, which can reach 15 m. The stem is straight and cylindrical, with a diameter that can vary from 10 to 20 cm and has thorns at the bottom. The tree provides fruits from November to March. They are greenish when young and turn purple when they mature. Its fruits are well used to feed farm animals. According to Brazilian specialized guidelines characterize the "pó de olho" and "pó de palha" wax powder as category A and B, respectively [4–6]. Meanwhile, the apical leaves have found lower chlorophyll content, type A wax has a pigmentation that shifts from white to light yellow and has a higher incentive than category B, which has a

Carnauba wax is derived besides the leaves regarding the *Copernicia prunifera* tree (**Figure 1**) and is made principally out of long-chain wax esters (80%), 20% contained fatty acids, fatty alcohols, and hydrocarbons [7–9]. Carnauba wax has the most maximum melting point conditions of all vegetable waxes and has been utilized in an assortment of items, including cosmetic and food products, nourishment items, and the paper area [9]. Additionally, this material is widely used in folk medicine, including the treatment of rheumatism and syphilis. However, carnauba

**74**

**Figure 1.**

Copernicia prunífera *tree (from Fortaleza, Brazil).*

Paim et al. [16] extracted the pectin from the aqueous pulp extracts (APE) of *Copernicia prunifera* analyzed by chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. From this study, the pectin substance acquired from the pulp of unripe fruits of *C. prunifera* demonstrated an estimation of 2.9%. Additionally, the pectin was observed by using the absorption spectra by demonstrating several carbonyl groups in the form of esterified and carboxylate compounds. Furthermore, the thin layer chromatography (TLC) technique identified galactose, galacturonic acid patterns, and arabinose compounds, respectively. By using, 13C NMR spectroscopy analysis method, various forms of polymers were recognized in the pectic polysaccharides chain compounds including D-galacturonic acid (major signs), D-galactose (lower signs) and the peak molar mass (*M*pk) was determined by gel permeation chromatography of 0.6 × 105 g mol<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup> . All these studies highlighted that pectin presence of higher molecular weight and a igher degree of esterification displaying improved performances.

#### **2.2 Triterpenes**

Almeida et al. [11], explored phytochemical investigation of hexane and ethanolic extracts carnauba wax (types 1 and 4) was analyzed and identified 16 dammaranetype triterpenes, with 13 newly categorized as (24R\*)-methyldammara-20,25-dien-3α-ol and a mixture of alkyl (24R\*)-methyldammar25-en-20-ol-3β-carboxylates, and 3 triterpenes such as carnaubadiol,(24R\*)-methyldammara-20,25-dien-3β-ol and (24R\*)-24-methyldammara-20,25-dien-3-one. Furthermore, fatty alcohols such as docosanol, eicosanol, and hexacosanol, tetracosanol as well as four sterols

#### *Phytochemicals in Human Health*

(campesterol, cholesterol, sitosterol and stigmasterol) were detected and identified. These finding isolated compounds were characterized by using Infrared (IR) spectra and confirmed by classical chromatographic techniques such as gas chromatographyflame ionization detections (GC-FID), 1 H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods.

1 H and 13C NMR spectroscopy techniques have been applied for structural elucidation of dammarane triterpenoids [basic skeleton as carnaubadiol] in carnauba wax powder obtained from the leaves of *Copernicia cerifera* [13]. Totally four types of triterpenes were identified from hexane extract of carnauba wax. Four of these compounds were, structure1, (24RŁ)-24-methyldammara-21,25- diene-3ˇ-ol, structure of 2 and 3 was distinguished as (24RŁ)-24-methyldammara-25-ene-3-one. Furthermore, the structure of 4, illustrated as (E)-25-hydroperoxydammar-23 ene-3ˇ,20-diol. The chemical composition analyzed after successive column chromatography using silica gel hexane followed by ethanol at room temperature, respectively.
