Abstract

Berry crops play a significant role in Azerbaijan’s agricultural sector. Pre-processing berry pulp with enzyme preparations can enlarge the quantity of some useful organic molecules in their extracts, such as vitamins, anthocyanins, polyphenols, and monosaccharides. These compounds are highly valuable for the food industry, and enhancing their concentration is a relevant issue. The current investigation aimed to study the effect of the enzymatic maceration process on the pulp of grapes, cherries, and strawberries on the content of the aforementioned substances in their extracts. The berries were treated with pectinase and cellulase preparations. The bioactive components in homogenate were determined and separated using high-performance liquid chromatography, with ultraviolet and mass spectrometric detection. A slight increase in the concentration of ascorbic acid was observed in the obtained extracts. Several anthocyanins and polyphenols were successfully identified in the investigated berries. Enzymatic treatment caused a sufficient increase in their overall concentration, as well as the content of some individual components. Coumarins were an exception, as their concentration decreased due to enzymatic treatment. It was demonstrated that the use of pectinase and cellulase preparations increased not only the glucose but also other monosaccharides’ content. The combination of two enzyme preparations had the greatest positive effect on the monosaccharide content in the investigated extracts. The obtained data are of great importance for the food industry regarding the studied berries and indicate the potential of enzymatic maceration as a method for increasing the content of bioactive components in grape, cherry, and strawberry products.

Keywords: anthocyanins, pectinolysis, cellulases, monosaccharides, polyphenols

Article language: En