Phenolic Compounds Extraction of Arbutus unedo L.: Process Intensification by Microwave Pretreatment

• Published in: Processes Vol. 8; no. 3; p. 298
• Main Authors: Alexandre, Agostinho M. R. C., Matias, Ana A., Bronze, Maria Rosário, Cocero, Maria Jose, Mato, Rafael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.03.2020
• ISSN: 2227-9717; 2227-9717
• DOI: 10.3390/pr8030298

Arbutus unedo L., commonly known as the strawberry-tree fruit, is an endemic species of the Mediterranean flora. Microwave extraction technology has been considered as a fast and “green” method for the production of extracts rich in bioactive compounds, although the energy consumption is high. To overcome this bottleneck, microwave was used as a pretreatment procedure in short time periods. This technique promotes the burst of intracellular vacuoles leading to an increase in the lixiviation of phenolic compounds. Different approaches were tested, namely a solvent-free irradiation (SFI), a solvent-assisted irradiation (SAI) and a pressurized solvent-assisted irradiation (PSAI). After irradiation, a solid–liquid extraction procedure was performed using a mixture of water and ethanol. A kinetic evaluation of the total phenolic content (TPC) was performed using the Folin–Ciocalteu method. For the total anthocyanin content, a UV-spectrophotometric method was used. HPLC-UV and LC-MS were used for TPC and identification of present compounds. Microwave irradiation led to an increase in TPC of extracts after SAI (52%) and PSAI (66%) along with a reduction in time of extraction from 30 min to less than 2 min. The anthocyanin content also increased by 66% for the SAI and PSAI extractions.