The effects of production methods and storage on the chemical constituents of apple pekmez

Production of grape pekmez by Ohmic heating-assisted vacuum evaporation

Pekmez is a concentrated syrup-like food conventionally produced by vacuum evaporation process from sugar-rich fruits. In this study, the applicability of grape pekmez production by ohmic heating assisted vacuum evaporation (ΩVE) method was investigated. Conventional vacuum evaporation (CVE) and ΩVE methods were compared in terms of physicochemical properties, HMF (5-hydroxymethylfurfural) contents, rheological properties, and energy consumptions. ΩVE was run at four different voltage gradients (17.5, 20, 22.5, and 25 V/cm). Total process times for grape pekmez production were determined as 57, 28.5, 32, 39, and 50 minutes for CVE, ΩVE (25 V/cm), ΩVE (22.5 V/cm), ΩVE (20 V/cm) and ΩVE (17.5 V/cm), respectively. Energy consumption of CVE method was higher than ΩVE method for all voltage gradients. Energy efficiency increased as the voltage gradient increased. There was no significant difference between CVE and ΩVE methods for HMF contents. The results show that the ΩVE method could be an alternative to the CVE process for grape pekmez production.

Improving the Recovery of Phenolic Compounds from Spent Coffee Grounds (SCG) by Environmentally Friendly Extraction Techniques

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the effects of different extraction techniques (high hydrostatic pressure-assisted extraction (HHPE), ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), and classical solvent extraction (CSE)) on phenolic compounds from spent coffee grounds (SCG). Different HHPE parameters (300, 400 and 500 MPa at 25 °C for 5, 10 and 15 min) and UAE parameters (40%, 50%, and 60% amplitude at 25 °C for 5, 10 and 15 min) were used. These techniques were compared with CSE (at 50 °C for 30 min) according to total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant activity (AA), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The results showed that eco-friendly techniques increased the TPC and AA compared to CSE and morphological changes were verified by SEM results. Furthermore, chlorogenic and caffeic acid were also quantified by using HPLC. Chlorogenic acid was found as the main phenolic compound in spent coffee grounds (SCG). The highest chlorogenic acid was detected as 85.0 ± 0.6 mg/kg FW with UAE at 60% amplitude for 15 min. In brief, for the extraction of phenolic compounds from waste SCG eco-friendly techniques such as HHPE and/or UAE were more convenient than CSE.