A Comparative Assessment on the Recovery of Pectin and Phenolic Fractions from Aqueous and DES Extracts Obtained from Melon Peels

Abstract This work evaluates the purification of melon peel extracts obtained by two eco-friendly methods: autohydrolysis and sodium acetate/urea/water extraction (1:3:1.6), an alkaline deep eutectic solvent (DES). For that, sequential ethanol precipitation and resin adsorption/desorption stages were proposed for the separate recovery of the pectic and phenolic fractions. In order to screen the optimal purification conditions, in a first step, the effect of ethanol concentrations (from 70 to 85%) on the precipitation of pectic oligosaccharides was assayed. Subsequently, the influence of the selected resin (Amberlite XAD4, XAD16HP and XAD7HP), liquid/resin ratios, and desorption sequences (varying ethanol concentrations and pH) on the phenolic compounds was also studied. The highest pectin yields were achieved with 85% ethanol: 16.11 and 18.05 g pectin/100 g water-insoluble solids (WIS) for autohydrolysis and DES extracts, respectively. All pectins presented a galacturonic acid content of about 45%, while autohydrolysis pectin presented a higher amount of neutral sugar side chains. The presence of low methoxyl GalA and both linear and branched OGalA with DP from 2 to 20 was also confirmed by FTIR and HPAEC-PAD analysis, respectively. Concerning the phenolic fraction, the resin adsorption and desorption steps at the selected conditions (XAD4 resin, liquid/resin ratio of 2 mL/g, eluted with 50% ethanol thrice) resulted in 79.55 and 4.08 mg GAE/g non-volatile content (NVC) for autohydrolysis and DES extracts, respectively, with improved antioxidant capacity. Moreover, some phenolic acids (protocatechuic and ferulic acids) and flavonoids (orientin, vitexin and naringenin) were quantified in the extracts by HPLC–PDA-MS/MS.