Evaluación de la actividad antioxidante de polifenoles microencapsulados obtenidos a partir de la cáscara de plátano (Musa paradisiaca)

Abstract

Polyphenolic compounds contain a high antioxidant capacity, which has made them substances of great interest. In Ecuador, there is a large agricultural production of plantain (Musa paradisiaca), but its peels are not used and are only discarded. In this study, we sought to make the most of the plantain peels, determined the best extraction conditions and microencapsulated the polyphenols to analyze their antioxidant activity. With the best ethanol concentration of 30 percent, the influence of the plant material: solvent volume ratio was studied, using ratios of 1:20 and 1:25 and extraction times of 30 and 60 minutes, with the result that the best conditions were 1:25 at a time of 30 minutes. The microencapsulation process was carried out by spray drying at an inlet temperature of 150 degrees Celsius and outlet at 90 degrees Celsius. Maltodextrin was used as polymeric matrix and the microencapsulation efficiency was evaluated by FT-IR spectroscopy. To evaluate the antioxidant capacity, the DPPH method was used, where an inhibition percentage of 82.28 percent was obtained for the extract and 28.50 percent for the microencapsulation.