Comparison on efficiency of pulse electric field, cold plasma and enzymatic pre-treatments for barberry anthocyanins extraction: Modeling and optimization

AbstractBarberry fruit is a good source of natural antioxidants and various functional compounds such as flavonoids, polyphenols, anthocyanins, vitamins, and pigments.Polyphenols and anthocyanins from barberry extract are directly related to health-promoting activities, and advanced extraction methods could increase the extraction efficiency. This research investigated and compared the conditions optimization for extracting anthocyanins and polyphenols through pulsed electric field, cold plasma, and pectinase pre-treatment. Pulsed electric at 3 levels of electric field intensity (3000, 5000, and 7000 V/cm) and three levels of pulse numbers (50, 75, and 100) were applied. Cold plasma was carried out at 3 levels of voltage (60, 70, and 80 kV) and 3 levels of time (1, 3, and 5 min); also, enzymatic method, which leads to the best results enzyme concentration (0.5, 1, and 1.5%) and temperature (40, 50, and 60 °C), was performed. The optimum conditions for pulse electric field were (7000 V/cm, 100), for cold plasma pre-treatment was (80 kV, 5 min) and for enzymatic pre-treatment was (1.5%, 60 °C). The comparison between different pre-treatments showed that, the enzymatic pre-treatment resulted in the best anthocyanins and polyphenols extraction efficiency was due to enzymes disrupt the complex cell wall structure to release the active constituents more effectively than other pre-treatment methods.