Some valuable compounds from prickly pear seeds and peels

ABSTRACT

Chemical properties of crude prickly pear seed oil were acid value 0.63% [mg KOH/g oil], peroxide values 1.65 [meq o[2]/kg oil]; saponification value 188.41, unsaponifiable matter 1.36%, and iodine value 108.26 [g[2]I, /100g oil]. Moreover, palmitic acid was the major saturated fatty acid, while lenoleic acid was the major unsaturated fatty acid in crude oil of prickly pear seed. The biological value [BV] of prickly pear seed was 49.16 and the PER 0.07. The obtained results showed that pectin extracted from peels of ripe prickly pear had higher ash content [2.61 and 2.12%] than that extracted from peels of mature prickly pear [1.59 and 1.05%]. Anhydrogalacturonic acid content was higher in pectin extracted from fresh and dried peels of ripe prickly pear [50.93 and 5 I.12] than that extracted from fresh and dried peels of mature prickly pear [48.98 and 48.30], respectively. Methoxyl percentage of pectin extracted from peels of ripe prickly pear had higher value than the methoxyl percentage of pectin extracted from peels of mature prickly pear. Acetyl content of pectin extracted from peels of ripe prickly pear was slightly higher than that extracted from peel of mature prickly pear. Degrees of estrification [DE] of pectin extracted from ripe prickly pear peels were 31.49% for fresh peels and 34.93% for dried peels. Meanwhile, it was 25.67% for pectin extracted from fresh peels and 26.84% for dried peels of mature prickly pear. The results indicated that there were no significant differences in the viscosity values [at 10 rpm] between pectin extracted at different maturity stages [mature and ripe] or pectin obtained by different extraction methods [fresh and dry]