Microwave-assisted extraction of pectin from jackfruit rags: Optimization, physicochemical properties and antibacterial activities

While fruit biowastes pose an environmental hazard, they can be utilized as a source of beneficial biopolymers such as pectin. However, conventional extraction techniques require long processing time with low, impure yields, and microwave assisted extraction (MAE) can suffer from these drawbacks. Here, MAE was applied to extract pectin from jackfruit rags and compared with conventional heating reflux extraction (HRE). Response surface methodology was adopted to optimize pectin yield, based on pH (1.0-2.0), solid-liquid ratio (1:20-1:30), time (5-90 min), and temperature (60-95 °C). Pectin extraction by MAE required lower temperatures (65.99 °C) and shorter reaction times (10.56 min). Pectin HRE resulted in a product with amorphous structures and rough surfaces, while pectin-MAE was high crystalline with smooth surfaces. Although both pectin samples showed shear-thinning behavior, pectin-MAE exhibited higher antioxidant and antibacterial activities. Therefore, microwave assisted extraction was an efficient method to extract pectin from jackfruit rags.