Evaluación de la capacidad antioxidante de los polifenoles microencapsulados procedentes de la cáscara del taxo (Passiflora tarminiana)

Abstract

Taxo peel is a by-product from the drying and peeling activities of the fruit processing industries. These residues, when not properly treated, end up in landfills generating environmental pollution problems that are hazardous to health, completely avoiding their polyphenolic content. Therefore, the extraction of these bioactive compounds is of interest for future applications in the food, cosmetic or pharmaceutical industry. For the extraction of polyphenols, two factors were studied, the time of 30, 60 and 90 minutes and the concentration of the solvent (EtOH) of 25, 50 and 75 percent, being 66,37 minutes with an amount of solvent at 58,99 percent the optimum conditions to maximize the polyphenolic content, with which, a total of 130,69 milligrams of gallic acid equivalents per gram of dry base was obtained. Subsequently, for the microencapsulation technique by spray drying, an inlet and outlet temperature of 150 and 90 degrees Celsius was used, respectively, with maltodextrin as the encapsulating agent, reflecting an efficiency of 83,50 percent. Finally, antioxidant activity was determined by the DPPH test, with an inhibition percentage of 80,04 for the concentrated extract and 20,10 for the microencapsulated one. It is concluded that the microencapsulation technique keeps the bioactive compounds stable and helps to release them in a controlled manner. The result is useful in the formulation of nutraceutical products important for health and disease prevention.