Utilization of cactus pear fruits’ pulp planted under severe drought conditions as source of natural pigments and antioxidant in cake making

Abstract

Cactus pear is a dominant crop to arid lands with high nutritional value. The cactus pear fruits are used in food processing as add value to food products. In this study, cactus pears were grown under three irrigation regimes (T1, T2, and T3) where two of them (T2 and T3) implicated severe deficit irrigation conditions on the crop. The relationship between applied irrigation water regimes and fruit physical and chemical properties including antioxidants, pigment and vitamin C content was studied. Also, the aim from this study utilizes cactus pear"s pulp (CPP), as additive value, in the processing of wheat flour cupcake. Samples of cupcake were made by adding 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% CPP based on wheat flour weight. Fruits obtained under T2 and T3 treatments had higher color concentration than T1. T2 irrigation regime yielded higher contents of total phenolic and flavonoid (TPC and TFC) than those produced under T3 and T1. Antioxidant activity was the highest in T2. Thus, fruits pulp obtained from T2 was selected for cupcake making. The content of soluble solids was 18 Brix in all treatments. Vit C. was significantly higher (P≤0.05) in T3 (56.04 g AA/kg) than T1 (55.42 g AA/kg) and T2 (51.01 AA/kg). The content of betacyanin"s in T1 was higher (0.47 mg \100mg dry weight) in fruits pulp than T2 and T3 (0.44 and 0.54 mg\100mg dry weight). Sensory evaluation showed that fortification with 60% cactus pear pulp had the best sensory characteristics meanwhile cupcakes fortified with 80% cactus pear pulp was not acceptable.