Enhanced lycopene extraction from tomato peels by optimized mixed-polarity solvent mixtures

Mounting evidence from clinical and epidemiological studies suggests that lycopene, the most abundant carotenoid in tomatoes, may be beneficial in the prevention or treatment of some important diseases. Ripe tomato peels are the richest source of lycopene, but the use of conventional solvent extraction methods without pretreatment of the plant material results in very poor recovery. The reason lies in the localization of lycopene in the plant tissue and the low permeability of the latter to solvent molecules. In this paper, a mixture design procedure was used to formulate solvent mixtures allowing the recovery of lycopene from non-pretreated tomato peels. Two ternary systems were investigated: (a) n-hexane–ethanol–acetone and (b) ethyl lactate–ethanol–acetone. Optimization of the ternary mixture composition led to a recovery of over 90% of the lycopene present in the peels. The high extraction efficiency was explained in terms of lycopene affinity combined with the ability to swell the plant material. A tomato oleoresin with high antioxidant activity and a lycopene content of about 13% (w/w) was also produced. Overall, the results indicate that highly effective solvents for direct recovery of lycopene from tomato peels can be easily prepared by a mixture design approach

UHPLC-PDA-ESI-TOF/MS metabolic profiling and antioxidant capacity of arabica and robusta coffee silverskin: antioxidants vs phytotoxins

A deeper knowledge of the chemical composition of coffee silverskin (CS) is needed due to the growing interest in its use as a food additive or an ingredient of dietary supplements. Accordingly, the aim of this paper was to investigate the metabolic profile of aqueous extracts of two varieties of CS, Coffee arabica (CS-A), Coffee canephora var. robusta (CS-R) and of a blend of the two (CS-b) and to compare it to the profile of Coffee arabica green coffee (GC). Chlorogenic acids, caffeine, furokauranes, and atractyligenins, phytotoxins not previously detected in CS, were either identified or tentatively assigned. An unknown compound, presumably a carboxyatractyligenin glycoside was detected only in GC. Caffeine and chlorogenic acids were quantified while the content of furokauranes and atractyligens was estimated. GC and CS were also characterized in terms of total polyphenols and antioxidant capacity. Differences in the metabolites distribution, polyphenols and antioxidant capacity in CG and CS were detailed

Water activity prediction in sugar and polyol systems using theoretical molecular descriptors

Water activity is a key factor in the development of pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food products. In aqueous solutions of nonelectrolytes, the Norrish model provides a simple and effective way to evaluate this quantity. However, it contains a parameter, known as the Norrish constant, that must be estimated from experimental data. In this study, a new strategy is proposed for the prediction of water activity in the absence of experimental information, based on the use of theoretical molecular descriptors for characterizing the effects of a solute. This approach was applied to the evaluation of water activity in the presence of sugars (glucose, fructose, xylose, sucrose) and polyols (sorbitol, xylitol, glycerol, erythritol). The use of two descriptors related to the constitutional and connectivity properties of the solutes was first investigated. Subsequently, a new theoretical descriptor, named the global information index (G), was developed. By using this index, the water activity curves in the binary systems were reconstructed. The positive results obtained support the proposed strategy, as well as the possibility of including, in a single information index, the main molecular features of a solute that determine its effects on water activity

Mild Enzymatic Method for the Extraction of Lycopene from Tomato Paste

ABSTRACTFour commercial enzyme preparations containing cell-wall degrading enzyme activities were tested for their ability to facilitate lycopene extraction from tomato paste. At 25°C, up to 75.6% of the lycopene present in the tomato product was extracted by a two-stage procedure that consisted of a preliminary 5 hour enzyme incubation followed by a 3 hour solvent (hexane or ethyl acetate) extraction. Increasing the duration of the enzymatic treatment to 12–18 h allowed the recovery of 85–90% of total lycopene. The highest extraction yields were achieved by using enzyme preparations with polygalacturonase and pectin methylesterase in addition to pectin lyase or cellulase activities

Green synthesis of gold nanoparticles using Kiwifruit juice

The use of kiwifruit juice as a source of metal-reducing and stabilizing agents for the production of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was investigated. The reaction was carried out in batch by mixing appropriate amounts of kiwifruit juice and gold(III) chloride solution. The formation of AuNPs was monitored by measuring the intensity of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band of gold. The effects of temperature (20-60 °C), pH (8-12) and gold-to-polyphenol ratio (GPR) were investigated. Characterisation of AuNPs by XRD, DLS and zeta-potential measurements showed that they were highly crystalline, with an average hydrodynamic diameter of about 50 nm and a zeta-potential ranging between -29.2 and -21.7 mV. Under the best reaction conditions (60 °C, pH 9, GPR = 5 mol Au3+/mol GAE), AuNPs with an average size of about 30 nm were produced. The results obtained suggest that kiwifruit juice is a suitable medium for the production of small-sized and stable AuNPs

Economic evaluation and techno-economic sensitivity analysis of a mass integrated shrimp biorefinery in North Colombia

The high freshwater consumption requirements in shrimp biorefinery approaches represents one of the major drawbacks of implementing these technologies within the shrimp processing industry. This also affects the costs associated with the plant operation, and consequently, the overall economic performance of the project. The application of mass integration tools such as water pinch analysis can reduce frewshwater consumption by up to 80%, contributing to shrimp biorefinery sustainability. In this work, the economic evaluation and the techno-economic sensitivity analysis for a mass integrated approach for shrimp biorefinery were performed to determine the economic feasibility of the project when located in the North-Colombia region and to identify the critical techno-economic variables affecting the profitability of the process. The integrated approach designed to process 4113.09 tons of fresh shrimp in Colombia reaches a return on investment (%ROI) at 65.88% and a net present value (NPV) at 10.40 MM USD. The process supports decreases of up to 28% in capacity of production and increases of 12% and 11% in the cost of raw materials and variable operating costs without incurring losses, respectively. These findings suggest that the proposed design of the water recycling network coupled to a shrimp biorefinery approach is attractive from an economic point of view

The effect of the complex processing of Microalgae Chlorella vulgaris on the intensification of the lipid extraction process

Microalgae are considered a promising source of lipids. However, the existing technologies of their extraction necessitate a massive improvement. In the course of the study optimal parameters of microwave radiation and of enzyme mixture "Cellolux A" and "Protosubtilin G3x" were experimentally selected and theoretically proved so as to allow increasing the yield of lipids 5.75 times to 23 % in comparison with the control sample (5 %). Moreover, the ratio and type of polar and non-polar solvents in the extraction stage for the maximum extraction of lipids was determined taking into account the necessity to process protein-lipid complexes

Advanced oxidation processes with Uv-H2O2 for nitrification and decolorization of dyehouse wastewater

In this work, a UV/H2O2 system was evaluated using an experimental design 2 level I-optimal response surface design to analyze the effect of temperature, pH, UV lamp power (W), and H2O2 concentration on dye load removal and nitrification from industrial cleaning wastewater. Results showed that the optimum conditions were 80 °C, pH 4, PW-UV 60 W, and H2O2 3.1 Mol*L-1. Removal percentages of 45% for COD, 47.5% color, 87% Fe, 82% Cr and 91% ammonium oxidation to nitrate were achieved. It can be concluded that the effluents treated by this process could be promising for reuse and exploitation in biotechnological tools through microalgae and cyanobacteria

Fisheries wastewater as a sustainable media for the production of algae-based products

Colombian intensive fish production is concentrated mainly in the departments of the Andean Region, Amazon, and Orinoquía. These systems were characterized for being exploited mainly by family farming nuclei, which are dedicated exclusively to breeding and others with mixed systems. Currently, the sustainable development of this economic line depends on two factors: global warming and the consumption of resources (energy, fresh water, and protein). The rapid growth of this socio-economic line has led to the development of 3 critical restrictions: the demand for food for fish production, the high volume of fresh water needed and the high concentration of wastewater which must be disposed of safely. Sewage from closed fish farming systems has high levels of nitrogen and inorganic phosphorus dissolved in the systems. The primary responsibility for these high contents is the feed which contributes to the sustained increase in the concentration of organic waste and toxic compounds in aquatic systems. To make use of this wastewater, the use of these as a culture medium for microalgal production has been studied in order to generate metabolites of industrial interest from a low-cost culture medium. In this work, the necessary culture conditions for the biomass production of Scenedesmus obliquus, Chlorella vulgaris, Spirulina maxima, and Oscillatoria sp. in fish farming wastewater to produce pigments and total biomass are evaluated. The wastewater was obtained from an intensive fish farming company in El Zulia (Norte de Santander, Colombia). The medium was UV-sterilized (4 Lamps of 15W, 5 minutes). In order to optimize the production of biomass and pigments, the wastewater was adjusted with the addition of nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon (K2HPO4 + NaNO3 + NaHCO3) According to the results, the residual water enriched with K2HPO4, NaNO3 and NaHCO3 presented the best culture conditions for obtaining carotenoids (in C. vulgaris and S. obliquus with values of 2.6 and 1.7% p/p respectively) and Phycobiliproteins in Spirulina maxima and Oscillatoria sp (10.9 and 11% p/p respectively). These results allow concluding that the residual water of fish systems is outlined as a suitable culture medium that can be used to produce metabolites of interest. Also, this culture medium must be enriched in order to increase the productivity of the system

Procedure for the formulation of business opportunities. Case studies in the food industry

Given the importance of identifying business opportunities in the chemical and food process industry, considering available technologies and raw materials as well as potential markets, the objective of this work is to propose a heuristic procedure for the formulation of business opportunities applied to a case study of the food industry. The proposed procedure considers previous actions and methodological pro-cedures and establishes a sequence of actions that facilitate the selection and development of new business opportunities considering market possibilities and potentialities, assimilable technologies, strategic projection through the SWOT matrix, economic evaluation and sensitivity analysis. The importance of adequately establishing the technical and technological scheme of the process and the financial analysis of the business as a tool to facilitate the objective evaluation of the situation and the correct decision making is demonstrated. The proposed methodology was applied to a case study associated to primary and modified products of Manihot esculenta Cranz (cassava), determining the technological, environmental and technical-economic conditions that guarantee the effectiveness and sustainability of cassava-cookies, flour and starch production businesses as combined primary assortments and precolloidal starch as a structurally modified assortment