Comparison between Centrifugation and Microfiltration As Primary Clarification of Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria)Juice

Abstract

Centrifugation and microfiltration (MF) were used for primary clarification of raw bottle gourd juice. The optimized conditions (time and speed) of centrifugation and those of MF (transmembrane pressure drop [TMP] and cross flow rate) were determined using response surface methodology. Clarified juice was analyzed in terms of clarity, total solids, protein, polyphenol, total soluble solids, sodium and potassium. The performance of both of these methods was compared based on the quality of the clarified juice and power consumption. Microfiltered juice had enhanced clarity (97%), but polyphenol concentration was less (8 mg GAE/100 mL) compared with centrifugation (13 mg GAE/100 mL). Practical Applications Bottle gourd is a traditional medicinal plant. Its juice has tremendous therapeutic qualities including antidiabetic, anticarcinogenic and cardioprotective properties. It is a rich source of various vitamins, minerals like potassium and antioxidants like flavonoids. Therefore, extraction of bottle gourd juice and subsequent clarification followed by fractionation would lead to selective separation of medicinally and nutritionally important bioactive components. This can be attained by a primary clarification to remove undesirable higher sized molecules and suspended materials followed by a more specialized membrane-based separation process. The present work highlights a comparison of the performance of centrifugation and MF as a primary clarification of bottle gourd extract. Thus, this work has direct relevance as an initial step of final scaled up production unit.