Pectinmethylesterase extraction from orange solid wastes: Optimization and comparison between conventional and ultrasound-assisted treatments

Abstract

During orange juice production, a half of fresh oranges weight is considered as production waste (peels, pulp, seeds, orange leaves and damaged orange fruits). An alternative for the management of these wastes is their treatment by addition of lime and a latter pressing, obtaining a press cake and a press liquor rich in sugars (10 Brix) and citric acid, protein, pectin and ethanol. For non-thermal concentration of press liquor to obtain citruss molasses (65-70 Brix), the removal of pectin is necessary. Traditionally, depectinization of juices has been done by using pectinmethylesterase (PME) enzymes from external sources. In this work it performed the extraction of PME enzymes from orange peels to obtain the optimum extraction conditions. Two different methods of solventextraction were compared (conventional andultrasound-assisted methods). For the conventional extraction experiments, a central composite design with three variables ([NaCl], pH and time) and five replicates of the center point was used. For ultrasound-assisted extraction, experiments were done at pH = 5.5 and [NaCl] = 1.25M), varying extraction time (1-30 min). Response variables were PME activity, protein content and a ratio between them, named PME effectiveness (ηPME). At the same experimental conditions (pH =5.5, [NaCl] = 1.25 M, t = 15 min) it was found that conventional extractions led to slightly better results in terms of ηPME than ultrasound-assisted extraction method.