Prospecting for new natural sources of pectins with potential for the food industry

Abstract

The potentialities of an agricultural residue, the shell of the acorn of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) and the associated citrus species Citrus aurantium L. (acid orange), were evaluated as sources of pectins of interest to the food industry. The cocoa acorn shells and the albedos or intermediate bark of acid orange were used, coming from two forms of production in the municipality of El Salvador Guantánamo. Pectins were extracted through acid hydrolysis processes, determining the yields, as well as the percentages of methoxyls and galacturonic anhydrous acid, whose parameters determine the properties of the pectins that allow their use as a food additive. The results allow classifying the pectins obtained from both sources as high methoxyl and high purity, which endorses their use as a food additive and as a raw material for obtaining agricultural biostimulants. Likewise, they offer an alternative to mitigate the environmental problem derived from the accumulation of large volumes of waste generated by the cocoa agribusiness in the territory of Guantanamo.