Abstract
Cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) juice with a total soluble solids content of 15.94 °Brix was fermented using the wine yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A 94.54% conversion of fermentable sugar was achieved with an ethanol production of 55.3 ml/l. The pigment degradation was found to be 17% at the end of the time allowed for fermentation. However, the fermentation had actually ceased due to depletion of fermentable sugars after 12 h, a point at which only 9.4% pigment degradation was observed and there was no further total soluble solids degradation. The thermal stability of the yellow-orange pigment of the fermented juice was determined as a function of temperature at pH 5.0. The kinetic experiments were carried out at three different temperatures, 50, 70 and 90 °C. For a pseudo-first order thermal degradation rate the reaction rate constants were determined to be 0.0066, 0.0206 and 0.1244 min–1 for temperatures of 50, 75 and 90 °C, respectively. The activation energy was calculated as 15.71 kcal mole–1. The fermentation process did not affect the thermostability of the pigment extract.
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Received: 10 January 2000 / Revised version: 31 March 2000
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Turker, N., Coşkuner, Y., Ekiz, H. et al. The effects of fermentation on the thermostability of the yellow-orange pigments extracted from cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica). Eur Food Res Technol 212, 213–216 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002170000247
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002170000247