The identification of preservative compounds from pumpkin fruit peel for the development of a fruit pulp product

The food industry is facing a growing demand for ready-to-use or ready-to-cook products with a long shelf life and increased nutritional value to meet consumers’ needs. However, there is also a growing concern about the widespread use of synthetic additives, which have been alarmingly correlated with adverse health effects. In this context, the opportunity to use the by-products generated during the industrial processing of pumpkin fruit to obtain a natural extract with preservative properties and to incorporate it in a fruit pulp product is being explored. In a preliminary study where pumpkin peels, seeds, and fibers were assessed, the peels showed the strongest bioactive properties, being thus selected to obtain the preservative extract in this work. To identify the bioactive molecules of the pumpkin peels, HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS was applied to the extracts of four genotypes. One to five different phenolic compounds were found in the tested samples, with (-)-epicatechin ([M-H]- at m/z 289) as the major compound detected in all of the extracts. These results suggest the possibility of using a natural preservative obtained from this fruit by-product in a new pumpkin pulp formulation.

The identification of preservative compounds from pumpkin fruit peel for the development of a fruit pulp product Artigo de Conferência