Acerola cherry extract as well as preparation method and application thereof

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of extraction and purification, and particularly provides an acerola cherry extract as well as a preparation method and application thereof, the preparation method comprises the following steps: crushing acerola cherries to obtain acerola cherry jam; squeezing the acerola cherry jam liquid to obtain juice, and filtering the juice through a non-woven fabric bag to obtain acerola cherry juice; adding a flocculating agent into the acerola cherry juice, stirring, standing, centrifuging, taking supernate, and carrying out vacuum concentration to obtain a concentrated solution; and adding ethanol into the concentrated solution for alcohol precipitation, collecting the alcohol precipitation clear solution, filtering, concentrating and drying to obtain the acerola cherry extract. The acerola cherry extract obtained by the method has higher vitamin C content and lower metal salt content, can be better applied to processing and production of wine bodies, and has a good application prospect.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of extraction and purification, and in particular to an acerola cherry extract and a preparation method and application thereof. Background Art

[0002] Acerola is native to tropical America and is now mainly grown in Brazil, Mexico, Southeast Asia and some parts of India. It is the fruit with the highest known natural vitamin C content in the world. Acerola is rich in vitamin C and other nutrients, and has antioxidant, immune-regulating, and anti-aging effects.

[0003] At present, the acerola cherry extracts on the market are generally developed only for food or non-alcoholic beverages, and there are no reports on the use of acerola cherry extracts in wine. The common acerola cherry extracts on the market do have some shortcomings when directly applied to wine, mainly including: 1. Acerola cherry extracts cannot be well dissolved and clarified in wine; 2. The color value of wine added with acerola cherry extracts will change during storage; 3. The metal ion content in the commercially available acerola cherry extracts is high, which can easily lead to instability of the wine after direct application, such as precipitation, affecting the quality of the wine.

[0004] In view of this, how to provide a method for preparing acerola cherry extract that can be applied to wine has become one of the technical problems to be solved urgently in this field. Summary of the invention

[0005] In view of this, the present invention provides an acerola cherry extract and a preparation method and application thereof.

[0006] The technical solution of the present invention is achieved as follows: The present invention provides a method for preparing acerola cherry extract, the method comprising the following steps:

[0007] Step 1, crushing the acerola cherries to obtain acerola cherry jam;

[0008] Step 2, hydraulically squeezing the acerola cherry jam and filtering it through a non-woven bag to obtain acerola cherry juice;

[0009] Step 3, adding a flocculant to the acerola cherry juice, stirring, standing, centrifuging, and vacuum concentrating the supernatant to obtain a concentrate;

[0010] Step 4: adding ethanol to the concentrated solution for alcohol precipitation, collecting the precipitated clear solution, filtering, concentrating and drying to obtain acerola cherry extract.

[0011] In some embodiments, before the crushing process in step 1, an appropriate amount of purified water is selectively added.

[0012] In some embodiments, the acerola cherries used in step 1 are 5-70% ripe green fruits, which are selected from acerola cherries without rot or deterioration, and surface impurities are removed. The cherries are cleaned and then crushed.

[0013] In some embodiments, in step 2, the hydraulic pressure of the hydraulic juice extraction is 10-50 tons, and the non-woven bag has a mesh size of 100-300.

[0014] In some embodiments, in step three, the flocculant used is one of chitosan, gelatin, and 101 flocculants, the amount of flocculant added is 0.02wt%-0.2wt% of the acerola cherry juice, the standing temperature is 0-4°C, and the standing time is 12-24h.

[0015] In some embodiments, in step three, the temperature of vacuum concentration is 30-50° C., and the vacuum degree is -0.07 MPa to -0.095 MPa.

[0016] In some embodiments, in step 4, the ethanol concentration is 50% vol-90% vol, and the amount of ethanol added is 3-5 times the volume of the concentrated solution.

[0017] In some embodiments, in step 4, the specification of the membrane used for filtering the alcohol precipitate supernatant is 200D-1000D.

[0018] In some embodiments, in step 4, the filtration is followed by concentration using a reverse osmosis membrane, and the concentrated solution is collected and dried.

[0019] In some embodiments, in step 4, the drying temperature is 30-50° C., and the vacuum degree is -0.07 MPa to -0.095 MPa.

[0020] In a second aspect, the present invention also provides an acerola cherry extract prepared based on the above preparation method.

[0021] In a third aspect, the present invention also provides a use of the acerola cherry extract prepared by the above preparation method in the preparation of wine.

[0022] The above-mentioned wines include herbal liquors and fruit wines of different aromas.

[0023] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0024] The acerola cherry extract of the present invention has a higher vitamin C content than commercially available acerola cherry extracts, and has lower content of metal ions such as calcium ions and magnesium ions. When used in the preparation and production of wine, the acerola cherry extract has good solubility and stability, and can keep the color value of the wine below 0.22 for a long time. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] The following will be combined with the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0026] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the embodiments of the present invention belong. If the definitions set forth in this section are contrary to or otherwise inconsistent with the definitions set forth in the patents, patent applications, published patent applications, and other publications incorporated herein by reference, the definitions listed in this section take precedence over the definitions incorporated herein by reference.

[0027] Unless otherwise specified, the methods used in the following examples are all conventional methods. Unless otherwise specified, the materials, reagents and instruments used are all conventional materials, reagents and instruments in the art, and can be obtained by those skilled in the art through commercial channels.

[0028] When an amount, concentration or other value or parameter is expressed as a range, a preferred range or a range defined by a series of upper preferred values ​​and lower preferred values, this should be understood as specifically disclosing all ranges formed by any pairing of any range upper limit or preferred value with any range lower limit or preferred value, regardless of whether the range is disclosed separately. For example, when a range of "1 to 5" is disclosed, the described range should be interpreted as including the range "1 to 4", "1 to 3", "1 to 2", "1 to 2 and 4 to 5", "1 to 3 and 5", etc. When a numerical range is described herein, unless otherwise stated, the range is intended to include its end values ​​and all integers and fractions within the range. In the present specification and claims, range definitions can be combined and / or interchanged, and if not otherwise stated, these ranges include all subranges contained therein.

[0029] The currently available acerola cherry extracts have a relatively high metal ion content, mainly calcium ion and magnesium ion content, because they are not used for the blending and production of wine. During the application of wine, they are easy to react with other herbal active substances in the wine to produce precipitation, resulting in instability of the wine, thus affecting the quality of the wine. By collecting and testing the currently available acerola cherry extracts, it was found that the calcium ion content is generally 1400-2000 mg / kg, and the higher ones can even reach more than 40000 mg / kg. The magnesium ion content is generally 1600-3000 mg / kg, and the higher ones can reach more than 25000 mg / kg.

[0030] At the same time, these commercially available acerola cherry extracts generally contain many macromolecules, which dissolve or precipitate in the wine, producing adverse effects on the wine itself, including insufficient clarity, precipitation or settling of suspended matter, etc., affecting the quality of the wine.

[0031] Herbal liquor itself contains a variety of active ingredients. During the storage process, the liquor itself may undergo oxidation reactions, resulting in higher chromaticity values. Acerola cherry extract contains vitamin C, which can play a good antioxidant role, achieve a certain color protection effect and increase the flavor of the liquor. However, the vitamin C content in commercially available acerola cherry extracts is generally 17-30%. At the same time, these products themselves contain some easily oxidized substances. This results in the commercially available products being able to maintain a good color protection effect only in the initial stage when used directly for liquor blending. As time goes by, the color protection effect weakens, and the color may even deepen further.

[0032] Based on the above deficiencies, the acerola cherry extract provided in the present application can be improved to a certain extent. Specifically, the preparation method of the acerola cherry extract of the present application includes:

[0033] Step 1, crushing the acerola cherries to obtain acerola cherry jam;

[0034] Step 2, hydraulically squeezing the acerola cherry jam and filtering it through a non-woven bag to obtain acerola cherry juice;

[0035] Step 3, adding a flocculant to the acerola cherry juice, stirring, standing, centrifuging, and vacuum concentrating the supernatant to obtain a concentrate;

[0036] Step 4: adding ethanol to the concentrated solution for alcohol precipitation, collecting the precipitated clear solution, filtering, concentrating and drying to obtain acerola cherry extract.

[0037] The principle of the present invention is to remove pigment substances and some macromolecular substances in the fruit juice by flocculation; by taking advantage of the fact that the solubility of macromolecular substances such as metal ions, polysaccharides, proteins, pectin, etc. in ethanol is lower than that of vitamin C, and by adding an appropriate amount of high-grade ethanol to the fruit juice concentrate to control the appropriate ethanol degree for alcohol precipitation, metal ions such as calcium and magnesium and macromolecular substances in the acerola cherry juice can be further removed, and vitamin C can be well retained. This method increases the solubility of the product in the wine body and increases the vitamin C content of the product; after the above steps, calcium, The magnesium ion content was reduced to 100-150mg / kg and 1000-1300mg / kg respectively, and the vitamin C content was increased from less than 18% to 23-25%; the alcohol precipitate was further treated by utilizing the filtering effect and charging effect of the nanofiltration membrane to further remove the macromolecular substances, metal ions such as calcium and magnesium in the product, and the solubility and clarity of the product in the wine body was further increased, the vitamin C content was greatly increased to more than 50%, and the calcium and magnesium ion contents were further reduced to below 50mg / kg, which greatly improved the stability of the product during the application process of the wine body.

[0038] The technical solution of the present application is described in detail below through specific embodiments.

[0039] Example 1

[0040] This embodiment provides a preparation process of acerola cherry extract:

[0041] 5 kg of needle cherry frozen fruit is taken, washed, and then 4 kg of cooled purified water is added, and the fruit juice is crushed by a juice crusher to obtain jam. After the crushing is completed, the jam is put into a non-woven bag, and squeezed by a hydraulic filter press while it is cold, with a hydraulic pressure of 20 tons to obtain juice; 0.15% of chitosan by weight of the raw material is added to the juice for flocculation, the flocculation temperature is 0-4°C, and the flocculation time is 12 hours. The flocculated liquid is centrifuged at 8000 rpm for 10 minutes, the centrifuge temperature is set at 4°C, the supernatant is taken, and it is vacuum concentrated at 40°C to a solid content of 40%, and 4 times the volume of the concentrated liquid is added with 95% ethanol for alcohol precipitation, and the alcohol precipitation conditions are: alcohol precipitation temperature is 4°C, alcohol precipitation time is 12 hours, and the alcohol precipitation clear liquid is filtered with filter paper to obtain a filtrate; the filtrate is filtered through an 800D nanofiltration membrane, the nanofiltration temperature is controlled to be below 10°C, and the clear liquid is taken, and the clear liquid is concentrated to a solid content of 30% by a reverse osmosis membrane and then vacuum dried, the vacuum temperature is ≤40°C, and the vacuum degree is -0.094Mpa, and finally 124.5 g of the finished product is obtained. The finished product has a vitamin C content of 51.95%, a calcium ion content of 48.4 mg / kg, a magnesium ion content of 30.6 mg / kg, and good alcohol solubility.

[0042] Example 2

[0043] This embodiment provides a preparation process of acerola cherry extract:

[0044] 6 kg of needle cherry frozen fruit is taken, washed, and then 6 kg of cooled purified water is added, and the fruit juice is crushed by a juice crusher, and the jam obtained after crushing is put into a non-woven bag, and the hydraulic filter press is cold pressed at a pressure of 25 tons to obtain needle cherry juice, and the juice is added with 0.17% gelatin by weight of the raw material for flocculation, and the flocculation temperature is 0-4° C. and the time is 12 hours. The flocculated liquid is centrifuged at 8000 rpm for 20 minutes, and the centrifuge temperature is set to 3° C., and the supernatant is taken, and the supernatant is vacuum concentrated at 40° C. to a solid content of 42%, and 5 times the volume of 95% ethanol is added for alcohol precipitation, and the alcohol precipitation conditions are: alcohol precipitation temperature of 3° C., alcohol precipitation time of 12 hours, and the alcohol precipitation liquid is filtered with filter paper to obtain a filtrate; the filtrate is filtered through a 600D nanofiltration membrane, and the clear liquid is taken, and the clear liquid is concentrated to a solid content of 39% with a reverse osmosis membrane and then vacuum dried, and the temperature is ≤40° C., and the vacuum degree is -0.095Mpa, to obtain 156.3 g of the final product. The finished product has a vitamin C content of 52.91%, a calcium ion content of 45.5 mg / kg, a magnesium ion content of 35.5 mg / kg, and good alcohol solubility.

[0045] Example 3

[0046] This embodiment provides a preparation process of acerola cherry extract:

[0047] 5 kg of fresh needle cherry fruits after selection and washing are taken, 4.5 kg of cooled purified water is added, and the fruits are crushed by a juice crusher. The jam obtained after crushing is put into a non-woven bag, and the fruits are squeezed by a hydraulic filter press at a pressure of 30 tons. 0.19% of 101 flocculant is added to the juice, and the flocculation temperature is 0-4°C for 12 hours. The flocculated liquid is centrifuged at 8000 rpm for 20 minutes, and the centrifuge temperature is set at 3°C. The supernatant is taken, and the supernatant is vacuum concentrated at 40°C to a solid content of 47%, and 3 times the volume of 95% ethanol is added for alcohol precipitation, and the alcohol precipitation conditions are: 3°C, 12 hours, and the filter paper is filtered to obtain a filtrate; the filtrate is filtered through a 300D nanofiltration membrane, and the clear liquid is taken. The clear liquid is concentrated to a solid content of 40% by a reverse osmosis membrane and then vacuum dried, and the vacuum temperature is ≤40°C and the vacuum degree is -0.095Mpa, and 128.6 g of the final product is obtained. The finished product has a vitamin C content of 53.87%, a calcium ion content of 48.7 mg / kg, a magnesium ion content of 48.7 mg / kg, and good alcohol solubility.

[0048] In the preparation process of the above embodiment, the supernatant after flocculation was vacuum dried to obtain an untreated sample, and the clear liquid after alcohol precipitation filter paper was vacuum dried to obtain an alcohol precipitation treated sample. The vitamin C content in the untreated sample, the alcohol precipitation treated sample and the final product was tested, and the change data are shown in the following table:

[0049] Sample name Unprocessed Alcohol precipitation treatment Membrane purification Vc improvement rate % Example 1 17.01％ 25.14％ 51.95％ 205％ Example 2 16.07％ 24.59％ 52.91％ 229％ Example 3 17.82％ 27.32％ 53.87％ 202％

[0050] The metal ion content of the untreated sample, the alcohol precipitation treated sample and the final product was tested respectively, and the change data is shown in the following table:

[0051]

[0052] At the same time, the untreated samples, the alcohol precipitation treated samples and the final product were tested for ethanol solution stability. The test method included dissolving 100 mg of the sample in 100 ml of 50% vol ethanol solution and measuring the instant chromaticity value of the obtained ethanol solution. The data are shown in the following table:

[0053] Sample name Untreated products Alcohol precipitation treatment Membrane Purification Products Example 1 2.69 0.60 0.21 Example 2 2.52 0.48 0.20 Example 3 2.63 0.47 0.20

[0054] The long-term color stability of the ethanol solution obtained above was investigated. The color value was tested after storage for 6 months, and the data shown in the following table were obtained:

[0055] Sample name Untreated products Alcohol precipitation treatment Membrane Purification Products Example 1 5.74 0.71 0.22 Example 2 6.02 0.55 0.21 Example 3 5.68 0.53 0.20

[0056] When 100 mg of commercially available acerola extract was mixed with 100 ml of 50% vol ethanol to prepare a wine sample, the wine body had a significant loss of gloss, while Examples 1-3 were all transparent. After filtering the commercially available acerola extract wine sample, the wine body had precipitation again after 6 months of storage, and the chromaticity value was greater than 10, which was much higher than the membrane-purified product of Examples 1-3, and the wine body of Examples 1-3 was always transparent. .

[0057] It is not difficult to see from the above comparative data that the acerola cherry extract prepared by the extraction and preparation method of the present invention not only has a greatly increased vitamin C content, but also has a greatly reduced metal salt ion content, and has good adaptability when used in wine products without affecting the quality of the wine itself.

[0058] Application Examples

[0059] The final acerola cherry extract sample prepared in Example 3 was used in Maopu herbal vintage wine at a dosage of 100 mg / 100 ml, and the wine was clear and transparent.

[0060] Comparative Application Examples

[0061] Commercially available cherry leaf extract was used in Maopu herbal vintage wine at a dosage of 100 mg / 100 ml. The wine began to lose its gloss and precipitation occurred after standing for 30 minutes.

[0062] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and principles of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for preparing acerola cherry extract, characterized in that: The steps include: Step 1, crushing acerola fruits to obtain acerola cherry jam; Step 2, hydraulically squeezing the acerola cherry jam and filtering it through a non-woven bag to obtain acerola cherry juice; Step 3, adding a flocculant to the acerola cherry juice, stirring, standing, centrifuging, and vacuum concentrating the supernatant to obtain a concentrate; Step 4: adding ethanol to the concentrated solution for alcohol precipitation, collecting the precipitated clear solution, filtering, concentrating and drying to obtain acerola cherry extract.

2. The method for preparing the acerola cherry extract according to claim 1, characterized in that: The acerola cherries used in step 1 are 5-7 ripe green fruits.

3. The method for preparing the acerola cherry extract according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step three, the flocculant used is one of chitosan, gelatin, and 101 flocculant, the added amount of the flocculant is 0.02wt%-0.2wt% of the acerola cherry juice, the standing temperature is 0-4°C, and the standing time is 12-24h.

4. The method for preparing the acerola cherry extract according to claim 1, wherein In step 3, the temperature of vacuum concentration is 30-50° C., and the vacuum degree is -0.07 MPa to -0.095 MPa.

5. The method for preparing the acerola cherry extract according to claim 1, wherein: In step 4, the ethanol concentration is 50% vol-90% vol, and the amount of ethanol added is 3-5 times the volume of the concentrated solution.

6. The method for preparing the acerola cherry extract according to claim 1, wherein: In step 4, the specification of the membrane used for filtering the alcohol precipitate supernatant is 200D-1000D.

7. The method for preparing the acerola cherry extract according to claim 1, wherein: In step 4, the filtered solution is concentrated using a reverse osmosis membrane, and the concentrated solution is collected and dried.

8. The method for preparing acerola cherry extract according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step 4, the drying temperature is 30-50°C and the vacuum degree is -0.07MPa to -0.095MPa.

9. An acerola cherry extract, characterized in that The acerola cherry extract is prepared by the preparation method described in any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the vitamin C content of the acerola cherry extract is ≥50%, and the calcium and magnesium ion contents are both ≤50 mg / kg.

10. Use of the acerola cherry extract prepared by the preparation method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 or the acerola cherry extract according to claim 9, characterized in that: The acerola cherry extract is used for wine blending.

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