Pulsed electric field-assisted extraction of hesperidin from tangerine peel and its technological optimization through response surface methodology.

BACKGROUND: Tangerine peel is rich in flavonoids, particularly hesperidin, which has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-cancer biological activities. However, it is often wasted during citrus processing. The current common extraction method for hesperidin is solvent extraction, which has the characteristics of low extraction rate and high contamination. This aim of this study was to incestigate the effect of pulsed electric field-assisted alkali dissolution extraction, followed by a acidification precipitation method, on the extraction rate and structure of hesperidin from tangerine peel.

RESULTS: The results showed that the selected factors (material/liquid ratio, electric field intensity, and pulse number) had a significant effect on the extraction yield. An optimum condition of 66.00 mL g-1 , 4.00 KV cm-1 , and 35.00 pulse number gives the maximum amount (669.38 μg mL-1 ), which was consistent with the theoretically predicted value by the software (672.10 μg mL-1 ), indicating that the extraction process was feasible. In addition, the purified extract was further identified as hesperidin by UV and NMR spectra.

CONLUSION: The appropriate strength of pulsed electric field-assisted alkali dissolution extraction followed by acidification precipitation method can effectively improve the extraction rate of orange peel, and the purity of the extracted orange peel is higher. Compared with the traditional extraction, the pulsed electric field-assisted extraction method may be a potential technology for hesperidin extraction, which is beneficial for the high-value utilization of citrus resources. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.