Coffee agro-waste is a potential source of polyphenols with antioxidant activity and application in the food and cosmetic trades. The usage of these byproducts persists as a challenge in the industrial landscape due to their high content of purported toxic substances hindering management. This study presents a green extractive process using pulsed electric field (PEF) and microwave assisted extraction (MAE) to recover polyphenols from coffee parchment and two varieties of pulp, posing quick processing times and the use of water as the only solvent. The performance of this process with regard to the bioactivity was assessed through the Folin-Ciocalteu assay, total flavonoid content, DPPH, ABTS and FRAP antioxidant tests. The phenolic composition of the extracts was also determined through HPLC-MS and quantified through HPLC-DAD. When compared to treatment controls, PEF + MAE treated samples presented enhanced yields of total phenolic content and radical scavenging activity in all analyzed residues (Tukey test significance: 95%). The chromatographic studies reveal the presence of caffeic acid on the three analyzed by-products. The HPLC-DAD caffeic acid quantification validated that a combination of MAE + PEF treatment in yellow coffee pulp had the highest caffeic acid concentration of all studied extraction methods.
Keywords: coffee agrowaste; microwave-assisted extraction; polyphenols; pulsed electric fields; solvent-free extraction.