**1. Introduction**

Caatinga is a Brazilian biome with a semi-arid climate, vegetation with small leaves and adapted to dry periods, as well as great biodiversity. This biome is found in areas of northeastern Brazil, in the states of Maranhão, Piaui, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia and part of Minas Gerais. This whole area covers about 844,000 km2 , or 11% of the Brazilian territory [1]. This ecosystem is very important from the biological point of view because it has unique fauna and flora, formed by vast biodiversity, rich in genetic resources and vegetation consisting of species, woody, herbaceous, cactus, and bromeliads. It has 932 species of plants, 148 mammals and 510 birds, for example, and many of these species occur only in the Caatinga.

The main characteristics of the Caatinga are: Strong presence of shrubs with twisted branches and deep roots; Presence of cacti and bromeliads; Shrubs usually lose their leaves almost completely in times of drought (property used to prevent evaporative water loss). The leaves of this vegetation type are small in size; Caatinga soil has low fertility and is stony. Caatinga biodiversity supports various economic

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*, among others.

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 greenish-gray pigmentation.

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

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*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90252*

biotechnological applications.

tography of 0.6 × 105 g mol<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup>

performances.

**2.2 Triterpenes**

**2.1 Pectin**

**2. Nutritional and chemical composition**

*The Phytochemical Composition of Medicinal Plants: Brazilian Semi-Arid Region (Caatinga)*

wax is utilized as a stabilizer to different waxes, for example, beeswax to improve the melting point, taking into account expanded utilization of these waxes [10]. Despite that, a great deal of research has been carried out into an attempt to extend the chances of potential outcomes of utilizations of this crude material. With this goal, analysis has been finished streamlining customary applications and examining advancements, for example, the utilization of wax for the microencapsulation of flavors and as a wellspring of molecules following up on the avoidance and treatment of, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and others. The wax is an item to show the level of local consumption with extraordinary potential for use all through the Brazilian food production chain. Along these lines, it is imperative to experts in the food area to more likely comprehend this crude material so as to misuse its maximum capacity. In this way, this review talks about the utilization of carnauba wax in food ranging from the nutritional, phytochemical evaluation, ethnobotanical and

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.

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 chroma-

higher molecular weight and a igher degree of esterification displaying improved

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

. All these studies highlighted that pectin presence of

**Figure 1.** Copernicia prunífera *tree (from Fortaleza, Brazil).*

#### *DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90252 The Phytochemical Composition of Medicinal Plants: Brazilian Semi-Arid Region (Caatinga)*

wax is utilized as a stabilizer to different waxes, for example, beeswax to improve the melting point, taking into account expanded utilization of these waxes [10].

Despite that, a great deal of research has been carried out into an attempt to extend the chances of potential outcomes of utilizations of this crude material. With this goal, analysis has been finished streamlining customary applications and examining advancements, for example, the utilization of wax for the microencapsulation of flavors and as a wellspring of molecules following up on the avoidance and treatment of, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and others. The wax is an item to show the level of local consumption with extraordinary potential for use all through the Brazilian food production chain. Along these lines, it is imperative to experts in the food area to more likely comprehend this crude material so as to misuse its maximum capacity. In this way, this review talks about the utilization of carnauba wax in food ranging from the nutritional, phytochemical evaluation, ethnobotanical and biotechnological applications.
