Natural Products, Medicinal Plants & Marine Drugs

Pectin was extracted from a new source Manilkara zapota peel using two different strengths of acids, to evaluate its potential utilization as an alternate source of commercial pectin production. Peels of Manilkara zapota were treated with hydrochloric acid in two strengths (0.1 and 1N) and pectin was extracted using conventional and microwave heating methods with different times of heating (10, 20, 40 and 60 min). Different mechanical procedures (cutting, grinding, chopping, hammering and homogenizing) were also used to crush the peels. The result after applying statistical calculation indicated that higher strength of acid is acquired better and effective extraction of pectin in less period of time. Hence it can be concluded that strength of acid has a positive impact on yield of pectin irrespective of the procedure used to extract pectin.