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Pressure-based method for the extraction and characterisation of agar from Gelidium sesquipedale

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Abstract

Agar has been widely used in the food, pharmaceutical and medical fieldsand has been traditionally extracted by soaking the macroalgae for up to 4 h at boiling temperatures. Traditional methods are often energy intensive and therefore extraction technologies are currently being investigated in order to pursue more sustainable form of extraction. This study focused on the extraction of agar from Gelidium sesquipedale by means a combination of an acid pre-treatment (citric or acetic acid) followed by autoclaving at different time/temperature combinations. It was found that among all the conditions tested (10, 15 and 20 min) and (100, 110, and 120 °C), the best condition was (20 min, 110 °C) by means of a citric acid pre-treatment, reporting a yield of 31.69 ± 3.5% (g extract per g dried G. sesquipedale), and a gel strength of 183.78 ± 36.80 g cm−2.

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Funding

This work was supported by the European Union Horizon 2020 project BIOCARB-4-FOOD [grant number: 17RDSUSFOOD2ERA-NET1].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Chemistry and Technology, Teagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown, D15 DY05, Dublin, Ireland

    L. P. Gomez Barrio & B. K. Tiwari

  2. School of Food Science and Environmental Health, Technological University Dublin-City Campus, Central Quad, Grangegorman, D07 ADY7, Dublin, Ireland

    L. P. Gomez Barrio, D. Pradhan, U. Tiwari, J. F. Curtin & A. K. Jaiswal

  3. Department of Food Quality and Sensory Science, Teagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown, D15 DY05, Dublin, Ireland

    C. Álvarez Garcia

Authors
  1. L. P. Gomez Barrio
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  2. D. Pradhan
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  3. U. Tiwari
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  4. J. F. Curtin
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  5. A. K. Jaiswal
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  6. B. K. Tiwari
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  7. C. Álvarez Garcia
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Contributions

Laura Pilar Gomez Barrio: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft. Dileswar Pradhan: Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology. Carlos Álvarez García: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. Uma Tiwari: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. James Francis Curtin: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. Amit K. Jaiswal: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. Brijesh K. Tiwari: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Álvarez Garcia.

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Gomez Barrio, L.P., Pradhan, D., Tiwari, U. et al. Pressure-based method for the extraction and characterisation of agar from Gelidium sesquipedale. J Appl Phycol 35, 2473–2483 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-023-03076-y

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