EFECTO DEL PRETRATAMIENTO DE LA HARINA DE CAPSICUM ANNUUM CON ENZIMAS, EN EL PROCESO DE EXTRACCION DE LOS CAPSAICINOIDES Y SU ESCALAMIENTO A PLANTA PILOTO

Abstract

Capsaicinoids, in some chili varieties (Capsicum annuum), are the compounds responsible for their “hot flavor” or pungency, they are industrially used in pharmacy, food and cosmetics. In Mexico, the industrial processes to obtain capsaicinoids are not optimized; for this reason, in this work an extraction process was developed to obtain capsaicinoids and carotenoids from chili flour independently. In addition to the solvent-extraction step, an enzymatic treatment was carried out to facilitate capsaicinoid extraction. After this enzymatic pretreatment, a solid-liquid extraction process was carried out and it was observed an increase in capsaicinoid recovery in the micelle. In the quenched flour, this recovery decreased when compared to the control experiments. Subsequently the process was scale-up at pilot plant level to choose the most appropriate equipment and its project engineering was made. Keywords: Capsaicinoids, extraction, enzymes, Capsicum