Original Articles
Charity U. Ogunka-Nnoka and Ma
Abstract
This research study aimed at extracting pectin using 1NHNO3, at different temperatures (60, 90 and 1000C) and times (60, 90 and 120 min) from five different non-citrus agricultural wastes namely: Telfairia occidentalis (Pumpkin seed peel-psp), Telfaria occidentalis (Pumpkin seed white pod-pwp,) Artocarpus camanis (Breadfruit seed peel-bsp), Artocarpus camanis (Breadfruit seed peel-bsp), Artocarpus camanis (Breadfruit creamy peel-bcp) and Mucuna urens (Horse eye bean peel-hbp). Preliminary results showed that optimum condition for extraction of pectin was at a temperature of 1000C for 90 min with horse eye bean peel recording the highest pectin yield (4.40%), while psp recorded the least (2.81%) on dry weight basis. Pectin yield increased with increase in temperature, however there was decrease in yield after 90mins for all samples. The pectin obtained was characterized using both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The result for qualitative analysis showed that the pectin from the five samples was found to be brownish in colour. As for the solubility, the samples were all soluble in hot water and partially soluble in cold water. Quantitatively, the equivalent weight (1471-1923mg/mol), methoxyl content (1.48-2.48%), total anhydrouronic acid content (14.08-20.78%), degree of esterification (55.48- 71.47%) and neutral sugar (0.193-0.769%) were significantly (p< 0.05) different among the samples. The overall results showed that the pectin from these non-citrus agricultural food wastes will be suitable for industrial use.