Alternative protocols for the production of more sustainable agar-based extracts from Gelidium sesquipedale

Agar-based extracts from Gelidium sesquipedale were obtained by applying a conventional hot water treatment and alternative ultrasound- and microwave-assisted methods, with and without the application of an alkaline pre-treatment. The alkaline pre-treatment produced refined extracts with higher purity; however, extraction yields increased from 2–5% to 7–19% by omitting this step. In particular, the ultrasound-assisted extraction allowed reducing 4-fold the extraction time, while keeping constant or even increasing the yield (up to 19% for the 1 h extraction) with respect to the conventional protocol. Interestingly, the presence of proteins and polyphenols conferred the semi-refined extracts a relatively high antioxidant capacity (19–24 μmol TE/g extract). The refined extract produced by the standard protocol formed the strongest hydrogels (>1000 g/cm2). On the other hand, the semi-refined extracts produced by the alternative protocols formed slightly stronger hydrogels (337–438 g/cm2) than the refined counterparts (224–311 g/cm2), due to their greater molecular weights of the former ones. LCA assessment showed lower global warming potential for the semi-refined extracts, especially the ultrasound-assisted extraction, hence highlighting the potential of this method to produce more sustainable agar-based extracts for food-related applications.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Martínez Sanz, Marta, Gomez-Barrio, Laura Pilar, Zhao, Ming, Knutseni, Brijesh Tiwar, Halvor, Svein, Ballance, Simon, Zobel, Hanne Kristine, Ekman Nilsson, Anna, Krewer, Christoffer, Östergren, Karin, López-Rubio, Amparo
Other Authors:	Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)
Format:	artículo biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Elsevier 2021-03-07
Subjects:	Seaweed, Gelidium sesquipedale, Ultrasounds, Microwaves, Phycocolloids, Antioxidant capacity,
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10261/244849 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000780
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