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Agro-industrial waste is a largely untapped natural resource of bioactive compounds including carotenoids and pectin. However, conventional solvent extraction involves the excessive use of organic solvents, costly equipment, and tedious operation. These limitations of conventional extraction methods could be prospectively overcome by the carotenoid–pectin hydrocolloidal complexation. The complexation of lycopene and pectin was efficiently promoted in an aqueous environment, resulting in the colloidal complexes that can be subsequently recovered by sedimentation or centrifugation. In this study, the potential of carotenoid–pectin complexation on tomato pomace containing carotenoids and pectin was evaluated. Tomato pomace is a rich source of lycopene, β-carotene as well as pectin, making it suitable as the raw material for the carotenoid extraction. The extraction of carotenoid and pectin from tomato pomace was optimized using response surface methodology. The maximum recovery was 9.43 mg carotenoid fractions/100 g tomato pomace, while the purity of carotenoid-rich fractions was 92%. The antioxidant capacity of carotenoids extracted from the complexation method was found to be higher than that from the solvent extraction method. Moreover, extraction yield and antioxidant capacity of carotenoid obtained from the carotenoid–pectin complexation were comparable to that from solvent extraction. The carotenoid–pectin complexation is a promising green approach to valorize agro by-products for the extraction of valuable carotenoids.

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Expansive soils are problematic due to the presence and consequent effect of their clay mineral constituents, which makes them show the volume change characteristics. The expansive and shrinkage behavior makes expansive soils unsuitable for direct engineering application in their natural form. In an effort to make them more practicable for different engineering applications, various additives and techniques are employed to improve the soil properties. Stabilization of soil with lime, cement, bitumen are expensive and therefore they are in need of an economic replacement. Further, replacement of expansive soils with good quality soil is quite uneconomical. The present investigation considers the effect of Egg Shell Powder (ESP) on expansive soil. The ESP Eggshell is a desecrate material from domestic sources such as poultries, hatcheries, homes and fast food hotels. Proper utilization of the ESP in conjunction with soil, if proved effective, could mitigate environmental pollution to larger extent. The Rock Dust (RD) which is being thought of as alternative to sand in the construction field, has been used, in proportion of 10-30%, in combination with optimum content of ESP for deriving maximum advantage of improving the engineering characteristics of soil. The sample of expansive clay has been extracted from Emani village of Duggirala Mandal of Tenali revenue division of Andhra Pradesh. The laboratory tests were conducted to find out the effect of these additives on consistency limits, compaction properties and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) at soaked condition. The purpose of the study is essentially to suggest the optimum combination to practicing engineers for use in various reengineering applications