PRODUÇÃO DE BIOFILMES À PARTIR DO MESOCARPO EXTERNO DO PEQUI (Caryocar brasilense Camb)

Abstract

The choice of packaging to be used to store food is of highh importance, as it is also a determining factor during the purchase of the product, because it facilitates protection and transportation, as well as delays modifications that are not of interest to the consumer. For these reasons, there is a growing amount of research related to the use of new natural compounds for the development of packaging. Pectin is a natural polysaccharide that can be used for the design of these biodegradable films. The objective of this experiment was to extract pectin from pequi mesocarp (Caryocar brasiliense Camb ), under pre-established conditions of three times (25, 50, 75 min) and three concentrations of citric acid (0.5 M, 0.75 M, 0.85M), to verify which one would result in the most efficient process taking into account the sweeps. There was used a 3³ factorial scheme in which the variable responses are yield, degree of esterification of the pectins was accomplished through FTIR and color of the extracted pectins. After obtaining the pectin extracted from the mesocarp, to perform the biofilm production with three different concentrations of commercially available pectin (F1, F2, F3) and characterization of the films obtained by color variation and mechanical characteristics. The degree of pectin esterification decreased as the processing time increased and the citric acid concentration increased, the yield and color variations showed interesting results with a good mathematical fit. The films had variation in their coloration according to which the concentration of the extracted pectin was being increased. The films with higher concentration obtained worse mechanical characteristics and an increase in their thickness. These data show that the use of the by-product generated by the pequi processing is of high commercial relevance, since there is a high potential of use for both industrial pectin production and the development of biodegradable films.