Physicochemical composition of the yellow passion fruit pericarp fractions and respective pectic substances.

Brazil is one of the world's largest producers and consumers of yellow passion fruit and the wastes from this juice processing industry are still subvalued. The rinds, which comprise much of this waste, could be used as an alternative raw material for extracting pectin. The purpose of this work was to characterize the yellow passion fruit's rinds as well as the extracted pectin. The pericarp was separated into three fractions and characterized. The specific analysis of pectin content (soft conditions of extraction) included yield, viscosity, degree of esterification, phenolic compounds and high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) profile. The most abundant component of pericarp was total dietary fibre (65%) and the exocarp fraction showed appreciable xylose content (123 mg⋅g-1). The highest content of pectin isolates (13.6%) of high esterification (79%) with highest viscosity (3.41 dl⋅g-1) was found in the mesocarp fraction, the lowest retention to the phenolic content of isolated pectin (15%) compared to the prepared flour prior to pectin extraction, and the HPSEC profile suggests the presence of a single population of polymers with high molar mass. This paper confirms the potential of Brazilian yellow passion fruit rinds as a raw material for the industrial pectin extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]