Bio-functional alcoholic beverage preparation using prickly pear juice and its pulp in combination with sugar and blossom honey

Abstract

A bio-functional alcoholic beverage using prickly pear juice and its pulp, in combination with sugar and blossom honey was studied. A simulation procedure was carried out by preparing different ethanolic extracts (5, 12, and 40% of ethanol, v/v) of the juice and its pulp, representing some typical alcoholic drinks (i.e., beer, wine, and whiskey), and estimating the in vitro antioxidant activity along with total phenolic content using spectrometric assays. Afterwards, alcoholic fermentation was carried out on the juice extracts, and its pulp using commercially available Saccharomyces cerevisiae and a blend of sugar and blossom honey. The aroma profile was also estimated using headspace solid phase micro-extraction coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Results showed that the different ethanolic extracts of juice and its pulp showed considerable in vitro antioxidant activity (43 ± 15% to 61 ± 3%, respectively) and total phenolic content (5.8 ± 1.7 to 9.8 ± 5.5 mg of gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/ml) according to production area. In addition, the alcoholic fermentation resulted in a bio-functional alcoholic beverage with an attractive appearance and higher antioxidant activity (64 ± 0.1%) and total phenolic content (7.6 ± 0.4 mg GAE/ml) than the juice, having a fruity aroma and distinctive taste due to alcohols and ethyl esters.