Libidibia ferrea (jucá): produção de farinha, bioaditivo e embalagem ativa antioxidante.

Abstract

The jucá (Libidibia ferrea) is a common plant in the Brazilian northeast, used in popular medicine, due to its therapeutic power, but underutilized as far as the technological potential. In view of this fact, aimed to use the fruit and the stem bark of jucá in the development of flour, bioadditive and antioxidant active packaging. Chapter 1 presents the nutritional composition and the physicochemical stability of jucá flour, indicating its potential as an ingredient for the food industry, which requires low water and fat retention, to improve the characteristics as, crispiness, enhance the feel and flavor retention of the product, enabling the filing of the patent to develop the process of obtaining and using jucá flour. In chapter 2, the hydroalcoholic extracts jucá showed its efficacy as antioxidant additives to soybean oil, they showed a good oxidative stability over 90 days of monitoring, also confirmed by the high content of phenolics and antioxidant activity. Chromatographic analysis of phenolic compounds from jucá extracts showed that myricetin and catechin are the major compounds. Chapter 3 shows the development of the polysaccharides film with additives jucá extracts, which was observed a decrease in water vapor permeability and elongation percentage. However, there was an increase in tensile strength, producing resistant films, low flexibility and low permeability; with respect to the hue, the films with additives jucá extracts were similar to amber glass, an interesting feature for use in lipid products that require protection to light. The films exhibit good oxidative stability, high phenolic content and antioxidant activity during 180 days of monitoring. The development of this active biodegradable material resulted in the filing of the patent application for the process of obtaining the biodegradable material with additives jucá extracts. Chapter 4 brings the films developed in Chapter 3 modeled as sachet packaging for the storage of soybean oil. The efficacy of this material as active antioxidant packaging was proven when compared to antioxidant-free controls. It was also observed the migration of the natural antioxidants present in the packaging to the oil, confirmed by the increase of the induction period by Rancimat and PetroOXY, during storage of 180 days. The antioxidant potential of active packaging showed a loss of 45% in the content of phenolic compounds and 10% decrease in the percentage of inhibition of DPPH free radical in the best performing formulation with 0.85% of each of bioadditive jucá in relation to the onset of shelf life. Soybean oil packaged in sachet of jucá remained stable throughout the period of monitoring, meeting the quality parameters of Brazilian law. Therefore, the jucá can be used as flour in the production of crispy product, and bioadditive in the production of coating, wall material or antioxidant active packaging for the food industry that requires protection oxidative reactions during storage.