Abstract
Fruit processing wastes are often discarded without being exploited as a sustainable source of phytochemicals. Red-fleshed pulp of pink guava is rich in phytochemicals, including lycopene and pectin. Conventionally, their extraction from the biomass involves high consumption of organic solvent, complex extraction steps, and sophisticated extraction equipment. Water induced colloidal complexation is a mild extraction method utilizing water as the sole solvent to induce lycopene-pectin complex (LPC) formation, which could be easily separated from the medium via centrifugation. This study aims to optimize extraction of LPC using water-induced colloidal complexation and analyze its economic feasibility at large-scale operation. The optimum extraction process was conducted at 1098 rpm of stirring speed and 1% (w/v) of solid loading for 34 min of stirring; at 1 L of working volume, the yields of LPC and fractionated lycopene were 11.7 g/100 g and 28.63 mg/100 g, respectively. The antioxidant properties of LPC remained after the storage at - 20 degrees C and 4 degrees C for more than 30 days. Hence, the extracted LPC can be directly applied as a final product without the need for lycopene fractionation. Scalability and economic viability of the developed extraction process were proven via the extraction scheme optimized in terms of the unit operations as well as the consumption and recycling of solvent. (c) 2022 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.