Minerva C. García-Vargas
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María del Mar Contreras
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Irene Gómez-Cruz
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Juan Miguel Romero-García
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Eulogio Castro
Avocado has become fashionable due to its great organoleptic and nutritional properties. It is consumed as a fresh product and it is also processed to obtain salad oil and guacamole. In all cases, the only usable portion is the pulp. Therefore, to be a more sustainable and profitable agribusiness, it is important to recognize which compounds from the peel and the stone waste can be converted into valuable bio-products. Therefore, their chemical composition was determined according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the total phenolic content by the Folin-Ciocalteu method and the antioxidant properties by the FRAP and TEAC assays. The main components of the peel and stone were acid-insoluble lignin (35.0% and 15.3%, respectively), polymeric sugars (23.6% and 43.9%, respectively), and the aqueous extractives (15.5% and 16.9%, respectively). Both biomasses contain lipids and protein, but a minor proportion (<6%). The valorization of lignin and sugars is of interest given the high content; stones are a rich source of glucose (93.2% of the polymeric fraction), which could be used to obtain biofuels or derivatives of interest. The extractive fraction of the peel contained the highest number of phenolic compounds (4.7 g/100 g biomass), mainly concentrated in the aqueous fraction (i.e., 87%) compared to the ethanol one, which was subsequently extracted. It correlated with major antioxidant activity and, therefore, the peel can be applied to obtain antioxidants and water can be used as an environmentally friendly extraction solvent.
Avocado-Derived Biomass: Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Potential
