Improvement of Bioactive Compounds Content and Antioxidant Properties in Crackers with the Incorporation of Prickly Pear and Potato Peels Powder

Abstract

Prickly pear peel (PPP) and potatoes peel (PP) are considered as a waste by-products which obtained during processing of prickly pear and potatoes, huge amount of peels are generated, and their disposal is a major problem and causes environmental pollution. In the present study, PPP and PP were dehydrated under vacuum at 70°C for 3 hrs to obtain prickly pear peel powder (PPPP) and potatoes peel powder (PPP) with 7% moisture content. These by-products were phytochemically analyzed, incorporated into crackers at 5% levels as a potential source of bioactive compounds. Bioactive compounds analysis indicated that PPPP and PPP contains high levels of many valuable bioactive compounds/antioxidants such total phenolics, (421 and 1388 mg GAE.g -1 DW) and carotenoids (217.11 and 135.76 mg.g -1 DW) as well as total dietary fiber (39.53 and 45.91 g.100g -1 DW). The total dietary fiber, carotenoids and total phenolics content in crackers increased from 5.89, 3.01 and 110.23 to 8.11, 14.34 and 143.28 with 5% incorporation of PPPP and 8.74 g.100g -1 , 7.88 mg.g -1 and 192.79 mg EGA.g -1 with 5% incorporation of PPP, respectively. Also, the antioxidant activity (AA) in control crackers was 30.11% which increased to 38.14 and 42.07% with the incorporation of PPPP and PPP by 5%, respectively. In conclusion, the results suggest that by incorporating PPPP and PPP, it is possible to enhance the nutritional and functional quality (bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity) of crackers without affecting on their sensory characteristics.