QUANTIFICATION OF PECTIN IN PULP OF FRUITS FOR SPECTROSCOPY FTIR AND PLS

Piercosimo Tripaldi-Cappelletti; Isabel Bejarano-Alva, School of Food Engineering, Peruvian Union

University - UPeU, Km. 19.5 Central highway, aa, Lima, Peru.
The pectin is a polysaccharide containing units of alpha-(1, 4)-D galacturonic acid. The vegetal
matrix usually contains pectin associated with of others carbohydrates molecules that interfere with
quantitative analysis, which require a previous stage of extraction and purification, for then
determine the amount of pectin by gravimetric, volumetric, chromatographic, colorimetric or
enzymatic techniques. The use of Transfer Fourier Infrared spectrometer for quantification of
polymers is simple, fast, and has high sensitivity; this could mean an alternative for this analysis.
For it, the objective of the present investigation was to determine content of pectin in the pulp of
three varieties of Passiflora: passion fruit (Passiflora edulis var. Flavicarpa), banana poka
(Passiflora tarminiana) and sweet granadilla (Passiflora ligularis), by means of spectroscopy FTIR
using methods multivariant calibration. In the calibration it was used pectin, citric acid, fructose,
glucose, and commercial sucrose applying the experimental design Box-Behnken with five factors
and three levels. Seven variables were selected (wave numbers) by means of genetic algorithms.
Finally was applied partial least-squares (PLS) reaching in the built model a coefficient of
2
2
determination R 0.98, a cross-validation coefficient of determination R cv 0.968 and a Rooturinate-Square Error of Cross-Validation RMSEcv 1.037. The quantity of pectin in the pulp was of
passion fruit 20,84%, 24,48% in banana poka and 13,14% in the sweet granadilla. The
spectroscopy FTIR application and chemometrics technical allowed the quantification of pectin in a
quick and not destructive way this could mean saving of time and money in the industry of fruits.