Pitahaya peel is a good source of bioactive polyphenols. However, the bound phenolics and their antioxidant activity remain unclear. The bound phenolics of pitahaya peel from two red-skinned species with red pulp (RP) and white pulp (WP) were released with different methods (acid, base, and composite enzymes hydrolysis). The results revealed that base hydrolysis was the most efficient method for releasing the bound phenolics from RP (11.6 mg GAE/g DW) and WP (10.5 mg GAE/g DW), which was 13.04-fold and 8.18-fold for RP and 75.07-fold and 10.94-fold for WP compared with acid hydrolysis and enzymatic hydrolysis, respectively. A total of 37 phenolic compounds were identified by UPLC-TOF/MS with most chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid in RP, whereas chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, rutin and isoquercitrin were the main compounds in WP. Regardless of the hydrolysis method, the extracts having the highest phenolic content showed the strongest antioxidant activities. The work shows that hydrolysis methods have a significant effect on the release of phenolics, and the contents of major characteristic bound phenolic compounds are related to the ecological type of pitahaya.
Keywords: antioxidant capacity; bound phenolics; hydrolysis; pitahaya peel.