Abstract:

This paper reports the orthogonal array optimization of the extraction of low-methoxyl pectin (LMP) from watermelon peel pretreated with compound phosphates. The optimum procedure for LMP extraction were determined to be based on material pretreatment with compound phosphates consisting of sodium phosphate, disodium hydrogen phosphate, sodium pyrophosphate and sodium hexametaphosphate added at 2%, 0.9%, 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively and subsequent deesterification for 0.5 h at pH 10 at 15 ℃. Under the optimized conditions, the yield of LMP was 5.07% and the methoxyl content was 4.49% in the obtained LMP.

Key words: watermelon peel, compound phosphates, low-methoxyl pectin