Abstract
Pectin, found in the cell walls of fruits and vegetables, is a complex colloidal polysaccharide. In this study, pectin was extracted using ultrasound and microwave-assisted extraction methods from waste lemon, mandarin, and kiwi peel to investigate their use as alternative source of pectin. Hydrochloric acid (HCl) and nitric acid (HNO(3)) were used as the extracting agents. The effects of microwave power (360-600 W) and irradiation time (1, 2, 3 min) for microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and of temperature (60 and 75 °C) and sonication time (15, 30, 45 min) on ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) on the yield of extracted pectin from the peels were investigated. Optimum conditions were determined for the extraction of pectin from all of the peel samples with the two extraction methods. The produced pectin yield and the degree of esterification were determined and, FT-IR and SEM analyses were performed. Kiwi peel gave the highest yield of extracted pectin using HCl as the solvent with 17.30% yield via UAE at 75 °C for 45 min and 17.97% yield via MAE at 360 W for, 3 min. It was concluded that lemon, mandarin, and kiwi peels all contained pectin and that MAE gave a better yield than UAE and could thus be used as an efficient and rapid technique for the extraction of pectin from the peels. The chemical structures of the pectin obtained using the two different extraction methods were similar and showed a high degree of methoxylation.