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. 2022 Jan 27:8:792203.
doi: 10.3389/fnut.2021.792203. eCollection 2021.

Pulsed Electric Field-Assisted Extraction of Aroma and Bioactive Compounds From Aromatic Plants and Food By-Products

Serena Carpentieri  1 , Anet Režek Jambrak  2 , Giovanna Ferrari  1   3 , Gianpiero Pataro  1
Affiliations

Pulsed Electric Field-Assisted Extraction of Aroma and Bioactive Compounds From Aromatic Plants and Food By-Products

Serena Carpentieri et al. Front Nutr. .

Abstract

In this work, the effect of pulsed electric field (PEF) pre-treatment on the extractability in green solvents (i. e., ethanol-water mixture and propylene glycol) of target aroma and bioactive compounds, such as vanillin from vanilla pods, theobromine and caffeine from cocoa bean shells, linalool from vermouth mixture, and limonene from orange peels, was investigated. The effectiveness of PEF as a cell disintegration technique in a wide range of field strength (1-5 kV/cm) and energy input (1-40 kJ/kg) was confirmed using impedance measurements, and results were used to define the optimal PEF conditions for the pre-treatment of each plant tissue before the subsequent solid-liquid extraction process. The extracted compounds from untreated and PEF-treated samples were analyzed via GC-MS and HPLC-PDA analysis. Results revealed that the maximum cell disintegration index was detected for cocoa bean shells and vanilla pods (Z p = 0.82), followed by vermouth mixture (Z p = 0.77), and orange peels (Z p = 0.55). As a result, PEF pre-treatment significantly enhanced the extraction yield of the target compounds in both solvents, but especially in ethanolic extracts of vanillin (+14%), theobromine (+25%), caffeine (+34%), linalool (+114%), and limonene (+33%), as compared with untreated samples. Moreover, GC-MS and HPLC-PDA analyses revealed no evidence of degradation of individual compounds due to PEF application. The results obtained in this work suggest that the application of PEF treatment before solid-liquid extraction with green solvents could represent a sustainable approach for the recovery of clean labels and natural compounds from aromatic plants and food by-products.

Keywords: aroma compounds; bioactive compounds; extraction; green solvents; pulsed electric fields (PEF).

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
GC/MS chromatograms of ethanol (A,B) and propylene glycol (C,D) extracts obtained from (A,C) untreated (control) and (B,D) pulsed electric field (PEF)-treated (Eopt =5 kV/cm; WT, opt = 40 kJ/kg) orange peels. Peak identification: Limonene (1); unidentified compound (2).
Figure 2
Figure 2
GC/MS chromatograms of ethanol (A,B) and propylene glycol (C,D) extracts obtained from (A,C) untreated (control) and (B,D) PEF-treated (Eopt =3 kV/cm; WT, opt = 15 kJ/kg) vermouth mixture. Peak identification: Linalool (3).
Figure 3
Figure 3
HPLC-PDA chromatograms of (A,B) 40% ethanol and (C,D) propylene glycol extracts from (A,C) untreated (control) and (B,D) PEF-treated (Eopt =3 kV/cm; WT, opt = 20 kJ/kg) cocoa bean shells. Peak identification: theobromine (4); caffeine (5).
Figure 4
Figure 4
HPLC-PDA chromatograms of (A,B) 60% ethanol and (B,C) propylene glycol extracts from (A,C) untreated (control) and (B,D) PEF-treated (Eopt =3 kV/cm; WT, opt = 20 kJ/kg) vanilla pods. Peak identification: unidentified compound (6); vanillin (7).
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