Antioxidant Recovery from Pomegranate Peel Waste by Integrating Maceration and Freeze Concentration Technology

Pomegranate peel, a by-product of pomegranate fruit is rich in antioxidants. It is being used as an animal feed or discarded to the environment, which could cause an environmental problem. A new integrated process of maceration and freeze concentration was studied to recover the antioxidants from the pomegranate peel. The low temperature used in the freeze concentration assists in concentrating a high quality of antioxidants. The concentrated peel solution was tested for an antioxidant activity via 2,2 diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging method. It was found that methanol gave the best extraction of antioxidants from pomegranate peel. The highest antioxidant recovery with DPPH radical scavenging of 96.14 % was obtained at -16 degrees C of coolant temperature and 30 min of freezing time (p < 0.05). The integrated process has proven to be an effective method to recover the antioxidants from pomegranate peel and can be applied to recover other bioactive compounds.