Abstract

PADRON PEREIRA, Carlos Alberto  and  MORENO ALVAREZ, Mario José. EVALUATION OF THE USE OF ENZYMES AND GRAVITY FILTRATION FOR CLARIFICATION OF DILUTED MIXTURE OF CACTUS (OPUNTIA BOLDINGHII BRITTON & ROSE) FRUITS PULP, ORANGE AND GRAPEFRUIT JUICES. Rev. Fac. Nac. Agron. Medellín [online]. 2010, vol.63, n.1, pp.5429-5439. ISSN 0304-2847.

In Venezuela the fruits of cactus (Opuntia boldinguii) are of scarce commercial usefulness. For its utilization the effect of combined use of fibrolytic enzymes and gravity filtration for clarification of diluted mixture of cactus fruits pulp, orange and grapefruit juices was evaluated. The values of filtered-flow curves of hydrolyzed and not hydrolyzed mixtures were compared by means of Welch's t-test. The optimal enzymes concentration was 0.76% (v/v). The prior enzymatic hydrolysis to the pasteurization does not affect the color of the mixture. During the pasteurization assays (62 ± 1 °C for 30 min) there were large changes of coloring, only in the hydrolyzed mixture, by betalains degradation and the addition of ascorbic acid (0.5% w/v) permitted to preserve the color. There were highly significant differences between the filtered-flow curves values (P<0.01). The filtered-flow of the hydrolyzed mixture elapsed 110 min (0.159 mL·min^-1) was greater to the not hydrolyzed mixture (control) flow to the 8 min (0.100 mL·min^-1). The juice production yield during the filtration of hydrolyzed mixture was 38.3% greater than that obtained with the control mixture. The elaboration of citric beverages pigmented with fruits of cactus represents an alternative of utilization of these species and the prior enzymatic hydrolysis to the elaboration constitutes a treatment to improve the quality.

Keywords : Betalains; cactus; citric beverages pasteurization; enzymatic hydrolysis; filtration; Opuntia boldinghii..

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