Improvement of the Antioxidant Activity, Water Solubility, and Dispersion Stability of Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit Extracts Using Argon Cold Plasma Treatment

Abstract

Microwave‐powered cold plasma (CP) treatment was evaluated as a means to increase the antioxidant activity, water solubility, and dispersion stability of prickly pear cactus fruit (Opuntia ficus‐indica (L.) Mill.) extract. The extract (2 g) was treated at various CP generation powers and treatment times at 25 °C to 28 °C. The antioxidant activity of the prickly pear cactus fruit extract increased by 1.8% and 1.7% after CP treatment at 750 W for 40 min and 856 W for 36 min, respectively. Both the water solubility and dispersion stability (delta backscattering) of the extract increased by 2.4% and 0.1%, respectively, following CP treatment at 644 W for 36 min. These results suggest the potential of CP treatment to increase the applicability of the prickly pear cactus fruit extract and possibly other insoluble natural antioxidant compounds in foods by improving their antioxidant activities and solubility in water. Practical Application Prickly pear cactus fruit is a functional food with a high antioxidant concentration. This study demonstrated that cold plasma treatment improved the water solubility and dispersion stability of prickly pear cactus fruit extract without altering or improving its antioxidant activity. The obtained results suggested the potential of applying cold plasma technology to improve the applicability of the extract, which is difficult to solubilize in food systems, to various processed foods.

Enhancement of polyphenolic content extraction rate with maximal antioxidant activity from green tea leaves by cold plasma

“…Increasing the treatment time at the low level of generation power causes the antioxidant activity to increase gradually, but as the treatment time increases at the high level of generation power, the antioxidant activity increases rapidly. The results agreed with a previous study (Kim, Lee, & Min, 2019), in which they treated prickly pear extract using argon CP conducted by a low‐pressure microwave‐powered system and reported that increasing the treatment time initially caused the antioxidant activity to decrease, but at long duration, an increase in the antioxidant activity was found.…”

Combination of air plasma bubbling and soaking in the reduction of phytic acid and improving free iron availability in pearl millet

“…Similar results were obtained by Sarangapani et al (2017) [32] in plasma-treated parboiled rice. The solubility of treated samples enhanced by 18 and 28% in T1 and T2 in contrast with C. These changes were identified due to the damage of complex structures to soluble components like amylose and amylopectin by the action of plasma reactive species (Kim et al 2019;Sarangapani et al 2016) [31] . Particle size of the flour impacts the dispersibility of the sample.…”

Microbial Decontamination of Rice Germ Using a Large-Scale Plasma Jet-Pulsed Light-Ultraviolet-C Integrated Treatment System

“…Neither PPU treatment at all treatment conditions nor independent APPJ and IPL treatments altered the ABTS or DPPH radical scavenging activity of rice germ (p > 0.05; Tables 1 and 2). Previous studies have reported changes in the antioxidant activity of foods upon APPJ treatment, IPL treatment, and UV-C treatment (Aguiló-Aguayo et al 2017;Kim et al 2019). The reactive species generated by plasma can increase the antioxidant activity of food by dissociating agglomerates of antioxidants; in addition, it can also decrease the activity by the degradation of antioxidants in foods (Garofulić et al 2015;Kim et al 2019;Kovačević et al 2016).…”

“…Previous studies have reported changes in the antioxidant activity of foods upon APPJ treatment, IPL treatment, and UV-C treatment (Aguiló-Aguayo et al 2017;Kim et al 2019). The reactive species generated by plasma can increase the antioxidant activity of food by dissociating agglomerates of antioxidants; in addition, it can also decrease the activity by the degradation of antioxidants in foods (Garofulić et al 2015;Kim et al 2019;Kovačević et al 2016). IPL and UV can induce a photo-protective antioxidant defense response to increase antioxidant activity (Aguiló-Aguayo et al 2017;Denoya et al 2020;Pataro et al 2015).…”