Effect of Microwave Heating Power on Pectin Extraction of Sugar Palm Seed (Arenga westerhoutii Griff.)

Abstract

Microwave-Assisted Extraction (MAE) has been employed as the new method to improve quality and yield of extracted pectin. Pectin is a polysaccharide, also known as a water-soluble fiber. The major use of pectin is as a gelling, stabilizing, and thickening agent in food systems. Each year, South East Asia countries have to import pectin because of the lack ability to produce pectin. Sugar palm seed is abundant in South East Asia and contain a large amount of dietary fiber, but the utilization of this commodity is still limited. The objective of this research is to determine the optimum extraction condition using microwave assisted extraction in relation to yield and quality of pectin. In this research, pectin extraction was performed using young sugar palm seed as raw materials. The effect of microwave power and extraction time on the yield of pectin was investigated. It was found that the yield of pectin ranged between 20.50- 39.31%. The highest yield of extraction obtained from pectin with microwave power 800 W for 7 minutes and the lowest yield obtained on extraction with microwave power 600 W for 3 minutes. Moreover, moisture content of pectin ranged between 9.58-11.83% and ash content ranged between 0.74-0.94% which is still meet the standard of pectin (less than 12% and 1%, respectively). The equivalent weight and methoxyl content of extracted pectin ranged between 847.95-1431.69 and 4.07-6.43%, respectively. The extracted pectin from sugar palm seed was categorized as Low Methoxyl Pectin (LMP) because its methoxyl content was below 7%. Other characteristics were galacturonic content and degree of esterification which is ranged between 34.64-57.11% and 63.93-72.97%, respectively. The comparison between extracted pectin and commercial pectin showed that characteristics of extracted pectin from sugar palm seed were better than commercial low methoxyl pectin. The methoxyl content of commercial low methoxyl pectin was 4.50%, so the extracted pectin was still better because it had methoxyl content below commercial pectin. It can be concluded that pectin from sugar palm seed had a good quality and had a potential to be developed become commercial pectin.