Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
Center for Colloid and Surface Science (C.S.G.I.), University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
Molecules. 2023 Sep 1;28(17):6390. doi: 10.3390/molecules28176390.
Pectin, a natural biopolymer, can be extracted from food waste biomass, adding value to raw materials. Currently, commercial pectin is mostly extracted from citrus peels (85.5%) and apple pomace (14.0%), with a small segment from sugar beet pulp (0.5%). However, driven by high market demand (expected to reach 2.12 billion by 2030), alternative agro-industrial waste is gaining attention as potential pectin sources. This review summarizes the recent advances in characterizing pectin from both conventional and emerging food waste sources. The focus is the chemical properties that affect their applications, such as the degree of esterification, the neutral sugars' composition, the molecular weight, the galacturonic acid content, and technological-functional properties. The review also highlights recent updates in nutraceutical and food applications, considering the potential use of pectin as an encapsulating agent for intestinal targeting, a sustainable biopolymer for food packaging, and a functional and emulsifying agent in low-calorie products. It is clear from the considered literature that further studies are needed concerning the complexity of the pectin structure extracted from emerging food waste raw materials, in order to elucidate their most suitable commercial application.
果胶是一种天然生物聚合物，可以从食品废料生物质中提取，为原材料增值。目前，商业果胶主要从柑橘皮（85.5%）和苹果渣（14.0%）中提取，一小部分来自甜菜浆（0.5%）。然而，由于市场需求高（预计到 2030 年将达到 21.2 亿），替代农业工业废料作为潜在的果胶来源引起了关注。本文综述了从传统和新兴食品废料来源中提取果胶的最新进展。重点是影响其应用的化学性质，如酯化程度、中性糖组成、分子量、半乳糖醛酸含量和技术功能性质。本文还强调了果胶在营养保健品和食品应用中的最新进展，考虑到果胶作为肠道靶向包封剂、食品包装用可持续生物聚合物以及低热量产品中的功能性和乳化剂的潜在用途。从考虑的文献中可以清楚地看出，需要进一步研究从新兴食品废料原料中提取的果胶结构的复杂性，以阐明其最适合的商业应用。
