The leaves of Agave tequilana Weber variety Blue represent a viable, inexpensive, and renewable source of lignocellulosic biomass and fructans for the production of second generation biofuels. The objective was to study the effect of drying temperature on the release of reducing sugars for the agave leaves. It was found that with pretreatment‐drying at 100°C for 30.5 ± 1.0 min had a maximum of the release of reducing sugars with a 66% increment compared to 60°C. An aqueous extract obtained from the powder of the leaves after drying did not show the presence of furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural compounds. Phenolic compounds were detected in order of 120.8 ± 1.0 mg L−1 below 1 g L−1 reported to cause inhibition of the alcoholic fermentation. In addition the drying of the leaves also can be used as preservation of agave leaf for biomass storing. The results show that pretreatment‐drying allow increase the release of reducing sugars, avoids thermal degradation and does not produce significant concentrations of fermentation inhibitors.
Practical Applications
The research in industrial waste materials has received special attention worldwide because it is potential for production of biofuels. This study propose a simple method of drying that acts as a thermal pretreatment of Agave tequilana Weber variety Blue leaves that increases the release of reducing sugars, avoids thermal degradation, not produce significant concentrations of fermentation inhibitors for ethanol production and can be used as a preservation method for storing biomass of the agave leaves. The results would be useful not only in the energy field but also in the alimentary and pharmaceutical industry. Fructans and phenolic compounds found in the agave are used as functional ingredients in the food industry and also bioactive compounds that by themselves promotes future research for the Agave tequilana.
Constant retort temperature (CRT) processes for thermally treated foods are usually time-consuming and have drastic impact on food quality. Variable retort temperature (VRT) processes may decrease the processing time and may retain better the food nutritional quality. Five isolethal profiles (one CRT and four VRT) for preparing papaya puree (pH 3.8) were designed using pectin methyl esterase as the target enzyme for thermal processing, and their effect on the puree quality was evaluated. The objective was to compare these profiles based on processing time, vitamin C retention, consistency index and color. The VRT isolethal profiles reduced the processing time up to 33.3% compared with CRT, whereas vitamin C, consistency index and chroma were retained up to 65, 71 and 89%, respectively, compared with fresh puree. The best resulting treatment was a VRT upstairs profile (75C/19 min, 80C/8.5 min, 90C/10.7 min and 6C/20.8 min). The results show that the use of VRT profiles allows retaining the nutritional quality of canned papaya puree.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSThis research explored the use of variable retort temperature to increase product quality and improve processing time in canning of papaya puree. In an upstairs profile, 65% of vitamin C was retained compared with fresh product. The results would be useful for canning of conduction-heated foods.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.