Abstract
To identify a possible use for some agroindustrial wastes generated from the sugarcane industry, we evaluated the antioxidant capacity of B and C molasses and vinasses from the sugar and bioethanol production processes. Molasses and vinasses were characterized by physicochemical methods. Subsequently, the samples were diluted in distilled water at five concentrations to obtain aqueous extracts. Total phenolic content (TPC) of the samples was determined using a spectrophotometric method and was expressed in mg equivalents of gallic acid. The antioxidant capacity of each sample was determined by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical) and ABTS (2,2-azino-bis-[3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid]) methods, as well as the ferric-reducing power in FRAP (Ferric-reducing Antioxidant Power) assay. We found that, both for TPC and antioxidant capacity, the vinasses showed significantly higher values than the B and C molasses. These results showed a strong correlation between TPC and antioxidant capacity and revealed a remarkable increase in TPC and total antioxidant agents present in the extracts throughout the sugarcane transformation process. These findings allowed identifying vinasses as the by-product with the best antioxidant properties. Our work constitutes a first step in the study of molasses and vinasses as a promising antioxidant agent and as a novel resource to test in proliferative trials in cellular systems in vitro.Graphical
Highlights
Sugarcane agriculture supplies about 80% of the world sugar demand, being one of the most important crops worldwide [1]
As for the vinasse, TSS are slightly higher than the reported by Aristizábal [41] and Ahmed et al [12], these parameters as well as the pH, COD, and BOD are typical of this kind of materials and are within the ranges reported by various authors [11,12,13]
In vitro tests here applied to determine the free radicals scavenging capacity of aqueous extracts of B and C molasses and vinasses generated during the sugar and ethanol processing, allowed to identify vinasse as the by-product with better antioxidant properties; this associated with its higher concentration of total phenolic compounds
Summary
Sugarcane agriculture supplies about 80% of the world sugar demand, being one of the most important crops worldwide [1]. 3 ml of the diluted ABTS·+ and 40 μl of the standard solution, the blank sample, or the extract to be analyzed, were added This mixture was stirred in a vortex for 10 s and allowed to stand in the dark at room temperature. 2.85 ml of freshly prepared FRAP reagent was mixed with 150 μl of the standard solution, the blank sample, or the extract to be analyzed. This mixture was stirred in a vortex for 10 s and was placed in the dark at room temperature. These analyzes were done with the software SPSS (PASW Statistics 18, version 18.0.0)
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