Abstract
In the present work, Calabrian apple juices belonging to four different cultivars, Royal Gala, Pink Lady, Golden Delicious, and Fuji, were studied. One of the objectives of this work was the characterization of metabolites present in the food matrix and at the same time the possibility of using innovative methodologies based on membrane operations, such as ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF), to obtain from the squeezed apple juice, extracts rich in antioxidants. To improve the overall quality of the study and enhance the coverage of the metabolome two analytical tools were used: NMR and HPLC–UV-ESI–MS/MS. One- and two-dimensional multinuclear NMR spectra combined with chemometric analysis (PCA) were used to identify the metabolic profile of different juice varieties and variations in metabolic composition. On the basis of its higher content of phenolic compounds, the Golden Delicious variety was selected to carry out membrane filtration tests. Specifically, the fresh juice was clarified by UF and then concentrated by NF up to a volume reduction factor (VRF) of 3.3. Permeate and retentate fractions of both processes were analyzed by HPLC–UV and NMR in order to evaluate the membrane selectivity of the selected membranes towards target compounds.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Gioia Succhi srl for collecting and supplying samples of Royal Gala, Pink Lady, Golden Delicious, and Fuji apple juices.
Funding
This work was supported by the University of Calabria and POR Calabria — FSE/FESR 2014–2020. The authors wish to thank Calabria Regional institution for its financial support through the AgrInfra Calabria POR FESR-FSE Calabria 2014/2020, Action 1.5.1 grant. L.B. thanks Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research for its grant n. AIM1899391–1 in the framework of the project “Azione I.2, Mobilità dei Ricercatori, PON R&I 2014–2020.”
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Martina Gaglianò: investigation, methodology, formal analysis, data curation, writing — original draft. Carmela Conidi: investigation, methodology, formal analysis. Lucia Bartella: investigation, methodology, formal analysis; Rosachiara A. Salvino: investigation, methodology, formal analysis; Leonardo Di Donna: supervision, conceptualization, data curation, investigation, methodology, writing — original draft; Alfredo Cassano: supervision, conceptualization, data curation, investigation, methodology, writing — original draft, writing — review and editing; Giuseppina De Luca: supervision, conceptualization, data curation, investigation, methodology, writing — original draft, writing — review and editing.
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Gaglianò, M., Conidi, C., Bartella, L. et al. An Integrated Approach Based on NMR and HPLC–UV-ESI–MS/MS to Characterize Apple Juices and Their Nanofiltration (NF) Bioactive Extracts. Food Bioprocess Technol 14, 2273–2285 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-021-02718-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-021-02718-8