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Sugar beet is a potential source of pectin, competitive with traditional sources, that has recently acquired great relevance for its interesting covalent gelling and applications in food and biomedical industries. Pectins from three Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) commercial cultivars (Cadet, Coronado large, and SV MEI) were grown under irrigated desertic conditions and the influence of cultivar, on pectin yield, composition, physicochemical and gelling characteristics was investigated. The composition and chemical properties of pectin from the three cultivars were in general, statistically different, especially in the Syngenta Cadet cultivar, presenting higher protein (10.3%), neutral sugars (21.6%), galacturonic acid (55%) and ferulic acid (5.5 mg/g) content, which are important parameters for gel formation. All pectins gelled via oxidative coupling and the main ferulic acid dimers found were 8-5&prime, and 8-O-4&prime, Pectin from Cadet cultivar formed gels with higher hardness (6.65 N) and adhesiveness (12.2 N) values than the other two varieties. The results indicate that pectin composition is affected by the sugar beet cultivars reported herein, especially in ferulic acid content, which confer the covalent gelling capability. Sugar beet cultivars grown under desert conditions could be a source of gelling ferulated pectins for the food industry, as valuable as those obtained in temperate conditions.

Pectins are plant cell wall natural heteropolysaccharides composed mainly of α-1-4 d-galacturonic acid units, which may or may not be methyl esterified, possesses neutral sugars branching that harbor functional moieties. Physicochemical features as pH, temperature, ions concentration, and cosolute presence, affect directly the extraction yield and gelling capacity of pectins. The chemical and structural features of this polysaccharide enables its interaction with a wide range of molecules, a property that scientists profit from to form new composite matrices for target/controlled delivery of therapeutic molecules, genes or cells. Considered a prebiotic dietary fiber, pectins meetmany regulations easily, regarding health applications within the pharmaceutical industry as a raw material and as an agent for the prevention of cancer. Thus, this review lists many emergent pectin-based composite materials which will probably palliate the impact of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, aid to forestall actual epidemics, expand the ken of food additives and food products design.