DEVELOPMENT OF A SCALABLE PROCESS FOR EXTRACTING AND PRESERVING ANTHOCYANINS OF HASKAP BERRIES FOR VALUE-ADDED PURPOSES

Abstract

Haskap berries are rich in anthocyanins. Optimal ultrasonication-assisted extraction (UAE) conditions were established to recover anthocyanins from dehydrated haskap berries (540 W; 62 °C; 64 min), which provided a total anthocyanin content (TAC) of 16 mg cyandin-3-O-glucoside (C3G) equivalence (C3GE)/g dry weight. Extracted haskap berry anthocyanins can be microencapsulated by partially replacing maltodextrin with inulin, demonstrating a promising substitute coating material. The developed microcapsule using maltodextrin and inulin (1:1, w:w) had comparable characteristics to microcapsules prepared by 100% maltodextrin in terms of C3G encapsulation efficiency (40%), moisture content (6%), water activity (aw 0.17), particle size (5.1 μm), and protection of TAC at 35 °C after 6 months storage. Furthermore, haskap berry anthocyanins (10 and 50 μg/mL) reduced significantly intracellular reactive oxygen species and lipid accumulation in hepatocytes in vitro. This study concludes that microencapsulated haskap berry anthocyanins as a potential functional food ingredient or natural health product for steatosis management.