Waste from peach (Prunus persica) processing used for optimisation of carotenoids ethanolic extraction

The processing of peaches to produce fruit pulp generates solid and liquid wastes rich in phytochemicals, such as carotenoids; thus, the objective of this work was to study the use of this waste for carotenoid extraction based on a complete experimental design and using response surface methodology. The parameters studied were the amount of solvent (20-50mL), the number of extractions (1-5) and the extraction time (10-30min). The extracts were analysed by spectrophotometry and the optimised conditions by HPLC. The optimised results were four extractions of 10min using 38.5mL of ethanol, which presented a yield of 168.59gg(-1) DW of total carotenoids of which 67.55gg(-1) corresponds to -carotene, 86.75gg(-1) to cryptoxanthin, 12.08gg(-1) to zeaxanthin and 2.2gg(-1) to lutein, which representing 66% of extraction pigments relative to the total content of carotenoids present in the peach waste.