Aproveitamento dos resíduos do fruto da pitombeira (Talisia esculenta) para elaboração de subproduto

Abstract

The pitombeira (Talisia esculenta) belongs to the Sapindaceae family, a fruit tree native to the western Amazon region. Although it is widely cultivated and commercialized in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, its nutritional potential is still little explored. During its consumption, its peels and pits are usually discarded, however, from this waste it is possible to develop new food products. Thus, the objective of this work was to develop farinaceous products from the pits and peels of the pitombeira fruit, by convective drying and microwave irradiation. Biometric analysis was performed to quantify and determine the formats of residues and fruits. The residues were crushed and subjected to drying kinetics and adjustments of the mathematical models to the experimental data, the best conditions obtained were those chosen to develop the farinaceous. Evaluating the mineral profile identified by energy dispersive X ray fluorescence spectrometer and the physicochemical characteristics of residues and flours through the analysis of water content, pH, total soluble solids, total titratable acidity, ratio, ash and proteins, as well as determination of water activity, total sugars, lipids, total carbohydrates and color parameters of the flours made. In the flouraceous products, the contents of total phenolics, total flavonoids and antioxidant activity were also quantified in vitro by iron reduction methods (FRAP) and ABTS, and the particle morphologies by scanning electron microscopy. The drying kinetics data had satisfactory adjustments with different models, especially the Diffusion Approximation, Midilli, Two-Term Exponential and Page models because they met the selection criteria of the best mathematical fits. With the increase of temperature and/or power for drying, it was observed that the effective diffusivities and Gibbs free energies increased, while the enthalpy and entropy variations decreased. There were interferences in the results of the parameters analyzed with the use of drying methods, with reductions in water content and increase in the levels of total soluble solids, total titratable acidity, ash, proteins and minerals, thus indicating a higher concentration of nutrients. The data show that the flours tend to have a red to yellow color, that they are non-toxic and have contents of crude protein, total carbohydrates, total phenolics, total flavonoids, antioxidant activity and relevant minerals. Therefore, it can be considered that through the drying processes of pitomba waste using both the air circulation oven and the microwave oven, it is possible to obtain farinaceous products with potential for the elaboration of new food products, adding value and reducing the waste of the raw material.