Intensification of extraction process of phenolic compounds from passion fruit (Passiflora edulis SP.) using high pressure technologies

Abstract

The use of agro-industrial by-products is an attractive alternative to mitigate environmental problems and at the same time serves as a source for obtaining high value-added bioactive compounds for the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. Among these compounds, we can mention polyphenols, which are found in considerable quantities in passion fruit bagasse, a byproduct resulting from the pulp and juice manufacturing process. Pressurized Liquid Extraction (PLE) is a clean and efficient technology capable of extracting compounds of interest from plant matrices. In this context, the objective of this work is to obtain extracts with high phenolic concentrations from passion fruit bagasse using PLE at temperatures above 70 ºC. The bagasse will be first submitted to extraction with supercritical CO2 at 35 MPa and 40 ºC to remove its nonpolar compounds. At PLE, a mixture of water+ethanol (75:25, m/m) at temperatures of 70 °C, 90 °C, 110 °C and 130 °C at a fixed pressure of 10 MPa will be used as a solvent. The best extraction condition will be defined based on overall yield (X0), total phenolic content, piceatannol content and antioxidant capacity, which will be evaluated by FRAP and ORAC assays. The results will be evaluated by analysis of variance (ANOVA), where differences at 5% level will be analyzed by the Tukey test. All results obtained by chemical analysis will be expressed as their mean ± standard deviation. This project is expected to achieve PLE conditions that intensify the production of passion fruit bagasse phenolic compounds.