Physical, chemical, nutritional and antinutritional characterization of fresh peels of yellow pitaya (Selenicereus megalanthus) and red pitaya (Hylocereus costaricensis) and their flours

Daphynni Carolinne Moreira Morais,Adriana Régia Marques De Souza,Eduardo Ramirez Asquieri,Vânia Maria Alves,Clarissa Damiani

doi:10.5935/1806-6690.20210065

Daphynni Carolinne Moreira Morais, Adriana Régia Marques De Souza + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5935/1806-6690.20210065

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Abstract

The consumption of fruits has been growing worldwide due to the exigence of consumers for healthy eating habits, generating a significant volume of agro-industrial waste such as peels. The objectives of this work were the physical, chemical, nutritional, and antinutritional characterization of fresh peels of yellow and red pitaya, as well as the production, characterization, and study of technological properties of these flours of peels. The humidity values obtained for the peels were between 88.56% and 91.18% and between 5.25% and 9.62% for the flours. For water activity, the peels had values of 0.94 and the flours between 0.35 and 0.52, showing that flours are more indicated to develop new products, such as bread and cookies, besides presenting higher protein content and low lipid content. The flours present glucose, maltose, xylose, fructose as the main sugars, high fiber content, minerals, and antioxidant capacity. It was not detected the presence of cyanogenic compounds, condensed and hydrolyzed tannins. It was concluded that the flours presented an excellent alternative as an ingredient to be incorporated in food products, in which the yellow pitaya flour stands out compared with red pitaya flour regarding contents of proteins, ashes, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, vitamin C, absorption index in oil, and the red pitaya flour stands out in calcium, manganese, copper, absorption index and solubility in water, absorption index in milk.

Highlights

The consumption of exotic fruits has attracted consumers, and among them can be cited pitaya
The dry peels were ground in a Willye knife mill (STAR FT 50, Brasil) to obtain the flours
The water activity (Aw) was evaluated with the portable analyzer (Novasina, Labswift-aw, Brazil), being color and Aw analyses performed both with the fresh peels and the flours

Summary

Introduction

The consumption of exotic fruits has attracted consumers, and among them can be cited pitaya. This fruit is from the Cactaceae family, considered wild and known as Dragon Fruit. The pitaya is an averagesized fruit weighing between 300 to 600 grams, with peel with carmine or yellow coloration, depending on the variety, and shiny peel covered with scales, from which comes the name Dragon Fruit. Pitaya presents nutritional and functional characteristics, in which the pulp is an important fiber source with attractive digestive attributes. Its physical and chemical characteristics can vary according to the species due to the high genetic diversity of this fruit (CORDEIRO et al, 2015; SANTOS et al, 2017). The peel presents antioxidant components, especially betalains (LI-CHEN et al, 2006)

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