Abstract
By-products from fruits and are of great interest for their potential use in the food industry due to their high content of bioactive compounds. Herein, we examined the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of carotenoid and carotenoid esters from papaya pulp and peel using soybean oil and sunflower oil as alternative green solvents. Response surface methodology (RSM) was established to optimize the UAE process. Three independent variables, ultrasonic amplitude (20–60%), time (10–60 min), and co-solvent percentage (ethanol) (5–20%, v/v), were applied. The highest total carotenoid content in the UAE extracts was obtained from papaya pulp extracts (58.7 ± 1.6 and 56.0 ± 1.5 μg carotenoids/g oil) using soybean oil and sunflower oil, respectively (60% amplitude/ 10 min/ 20% ethanol). On the other hand, the highest carotenoid content (52.0 ± 0.9 μg carotenoids/g oil) was obtained from papaya peel using soybean oil applying the UAE process (20% amplitude/ 77 min/ 20% ethanol); a minor content of 39.3 ± 0.5 μg carotenoids/g oil was obtained from papaya peel using sunflower oil at 60% amplitude/ 60 min/ 5% ethanol. Lycopene was the most abundant carotenoid among all individual carotenoids observed in papaya oil extracts, obtaining the highest yields of this carotenoid when papaya pulp and peel were extracted using soybean oil (94% and 81%, respectively) and sunflower oil (95% and 82%, respectively). Great extraction of xanthophyll esters was detected using 20% of ethanol in the vegetable oil extraction solvent (v/v). High correlations (>0.85) was obtained between total carotenoid content and color determination in the UAE oil extracts. UAE vegetable oil extracts enriched with carotenoids from papaya by-products could be useful to formulate new food ingredients based on emulsions with interesting potential health benefits.
Highlights
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralPapaya (Carica papaya L.) is a tropical fruit-bearing tree with origins in southern Mexico to Colombia and Venezuela; nowadays this fruit is grown widely in tropical and subtropical regions around the world (Latin America, India, and Africa, among others)
Sweet Mary tissues using the convectional extraction has been previously reported by Lara-Abia et al [2], and this information was the guide to identify the carotenoids and carotenoids esters extracted to the vegetable oils
The chromatographic profiles of the papaya pulp and peel extracts obtained from the standard untreated and ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) extracts did not show any differences in carotenoid profiles between using soybean oil and sunflower oil (Figure S1, Supplementary material)
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralPapaya (Carica papaya L.) is a tropical fruit-bearing tree with origins in southern Mexico to Colombia and Venezuela; nowadays this fruit is grown widely in tropical and subtropical regions around the world (Latin America, India, and Africa, among others). Mexico is registered as the main exporter in the world (participation volume of 47%), with an annual production of 1 million 118 thousand tons, and the United States has been registered as the principal importer Maradol is the most popular variety worldwide, new cultivars of papaya (Sweet Mary, Alicia, and Eksotika) are set in the Canary Islands (Spain). Spain is the largest papaya producer in Europe (annual production of 15,000 tons, approximately) and the Canary Islands are with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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