Effects of enzymatic treatment on the chemical composition on the chemical composition, antioxidant and rheological properties of cactus cladode juice

Abstract

Cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica), commonly referred to as prickly pear or nopal cactus, belongs to the family Cactaceae. It has attracted domestic and international industries’ attention owing to its nutritional and health benefit potentials. In this project, the quality of the cactus cladode juice after treated with the enzymes Pectinex Ultra SP-L and Viscozyme at different concentrations and incubation durations was investigated in terms of chemical composition and antioxidant properties. Among different concentrations, 0.15% w/w produced higher yields and higher-quality juices. Furthermore, the results also indicated that prolonging the incubation duration could improve juice yield but this occurred only within the first hour of reaction and the highest yields were obtained at 0.75 h. At this condition, the combination of Pectinex Ultra SP-L and Viscozyme at their weight ratio 1:1 showed the highest effectiveness in improving juice yield and DPPH scavenging activity, while the highest total phenolic content was obtained when treating with Pectinex Ultra SP-L. Overall, the quality of enzyme-treated juices was better than that of the untreated juice. In addition, the data also showed that the cactus juice behaved as shear – thickening fluids at room temperature. Keywords: cactus; enzyme treatment; enzyme concentration; treatment duration; chemical compositions, antioxidant properties.