Abstract

hañar (Geoffroea decorticansGill.ex Hook. etArn.)is a native tree of the Fabaceaefamily growing at the Atacama Region in Chile and also in bordering countries. Chañar fruits are an ethnic and ancestral food source and represent an important nutritional and cultural heritage. The fruits have a high nutraceutical potential because of their polyphenols contents,such as flavonoids, and also due to its antioxidant properties, allowing that way the promotion of the fruits and derivatives consumption as arrope or other products. The main objective of the study is to recover the traditional and ancestral knowledge and to value the Chañar fruit nutritional patrimony, in order to demonstrate it use as especial properties product to consumers who like natural and organic alternatives as well as their ethnic and ancestral connotation. To rescue the ancestralknowledge on the use and productive processmethodological procedures based on technical and qualitative strategies were used to work with the Collas communities and the Women Rural and Indigenous Net (RATMURI)in the Atacama Region. To the fruit nutritional valuation proximal components, antioxidants and flavonoids were determined by using mesocarp (pulp without skin) and seeds collected from areas of the Copiapó Commune. The results show high carbohydrates, flavonoids and antioxidants presenceand these characteristics, together wit the bibliographic information, position fruits and arrope as important products, not only in the food consumption field in niche markets but also in the popular medicine field (ethno-pharmaceuticalproduct)