Enzyme-mediated solvent extraction of carotenoids from marigold flower (Tagetes erecta)

J Agric Food Chem. 2002 Jul 31;50(16):4491-6. doi: 10.1021/jf025550q.

Abstract

Marigold flowers are the most important source of carotenoids for application in the food industry. However, the extraction gives almost 50% losses of the carotenoids depending on conditions for silaging, drying, and solvent extraction. In the past decades, macerating enzymes have been successfully applied to improve the extraction yield of valued compounds from natural products. In this work, an alternative extraction process for carotenoids is proposed, consisting of a simultaneous enzymatic treatment and solvent extraction. The proposed process employs milled fresh flowers directly as raw material, eliminating the inefficient silage and drying operations as well as the generation of hard to deal with aqueous effluents present in traditional processes. The process developed was tested at the 80 L scale, where under optimal conditions a carotenoid recovery yield of 97% was obtained.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Asteraceae / chemistry*
  • Carotenoids / isolation & purification*
  • Cellulase / metabolism
  • Enzymes / metabolism*
  • Food Industry
  • Glycoside Hydrolases / metabolism
  • Hydrolysis
  • Metalloendopeptidases / metabolism
  • Plant Structures / chemistry
  • Polygalacturonase / metabolism
  • Solvents

Substances

  • Enzymes
  • Solvents
  • Carotenoids
  • Glycoside Hydrolases
  • hemicellulase
  • Polygalacturonase
  • Cellulase
  • Metalloendopeptidases
  • microbial metalloproteinases