Gelatin is extensively added to the food products for quality improvements of food entities. The role of gelatin as food thickener, texturizer, stabilizer, ingredient and as an animal based source has restricted its liberal use. However, the usage of this animal-based food quality improver has become less popular due to religious constraints and health restrictions. In fact, it is now direly needed to replace animal-based gelatin by plant-based. Pectin, the basic building material of cell walls in the terrestrial plant has great potential to be gelatin replacer as it can work as a gelling agent, thickener and also a stabilizer. Dragon fruit contains pectin which has high-value functional food as well as healthenhancing properties to substitute gelatin’s function in foods production. The current study aims to extract pectin from dragon fruit peels by using hot acid extraction. The optimum conditions for extraction were found to be at 75ºC and pH 3.5 based on the highest percentage of pectin yield (33%). The FTIR result proved that dragon fruit peel contained pectin, which can be used as gelatin replacer are free from any religious and health-wise prohibitions. Pectin extracted was characterized in terms of moisture (14.03 ± 1.925) and ash content (8.73 ± 1.218). The extracted pectin of dragon fruit peel acts as the best gelatin replacer compared to commercial pectin and gelatins from the market. The prepared fruit peels also exhibit high DPPH scavenging activity (57.94%) with methanol extract (2mg/ml).

Increasing awareness among Muslims with respect to the Halal status of food has intensified efficient and effective food-source authentications that are science-basedprotocol. Traceability of gelatine to its source remains a daunting scientific task prior to classification of gelatine Halal status. The methodology of this study involves UV-Vis spectroscopic measurement of the degree of browning during Maillard reaction of different gelatine sources with the different type of reducing sugar. D-(+)-xylose has the highest value of browning value (A420nm) of Maillard reaction with gelatine among compared to another type of reducing sugar used. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) used to differentiate the sources of gelatine and successfully identify the major contribution of D-(+)-xylose in the browning value. The score plots of the first principle component (PC1) and the second component (PC2) could be classified and differentiated of gelatine types (porcine, bovine and fish) using variables of browning value of Maillard reaction of gelatinees with different types of sugar, as evaluated using spectrophotometer at 420 nm.

Dragon fruit is a tropical fruit belongs to Cactae family of genus Hylocereus. Popular as buah naga in Malay, dragon fruit is not only sought after for its wonderful taste, but this fruit is also nutritionally and medicinally attractive for consumers. The dragon fruit flesh is usually eaten raw or it is processed into juices and the remaining peel will be discarded. To minimize the waste created from dragon fruit consumption, an idea of transforming the peel of dragon fruit into edible pectin has been proposed. Pectin can be found in food products as a gelling agent and it is used to maintain the quality of foods. Recent market demand for pectin is increasing annually and to meet the supply-demand, researchers are working towards obtaining pectin from available non-conventional sources. In this study, pectin was extracted from dragon fruit peel by hot acid extraction at pH 3.5 and 75 mins of extraction. Distilled water was used as a solvent and the acidic environment was achieved with dilute HCl. Degree of esterification (DE) analysis was performed by FTIR. The extracted pectin was categorized as high methoxyl pectin based on DE (52%). The endothermic properties of dragon fruit pectin analyzed by DSC indicating the stability of extracted pectin compared to citrus peel pectin. Pectin extracted was characterized in terms of moisture (14.03±1.925), ash content (8.73±1.218), as well as water and oilholding capacity (4.08±0.0.81) (2.18±0.096), swelling capacity (5.94±1.271) and texture profile in terms of gumminess (33.66±6.05), cohesiveness (1.06±0.08) and hardness (31.63±3.81). All characteristics were compared with citrus peel pectin.