Solvent extraction of pectin from key lime and calamansi lime

Abstract

Calamansi lime and key lime are the tree fruit that is widely cultivated in the world. These limes are generally used in cooking for their amazing taste of juice. The main purpose of this study is to extract pectin from lime peel using two types of solvent which are water and ethanol. These solvents are used to observe the difference of chemical compounds and physical properties between both limes. DSC analyses were conducted over a temperature range from −20 °C to 200 °C at a heating rate of 10 °C/min for thermal characterization. For the effect of pH , the experiment was conducted from pH 1 to pH 5. It was found that from the experimental observations that pH 1 solution gives the highest yield of pectin. Key lime using ethanol as a solvent revealed the highest yield at 45.7% and the lowest yield of pectin using calamansi lime in ethanol at 10.8%. These reveal the successful extraction of lime pectin using calamansi and key lime and have potential as halal gelatin substitutes.