Carotene reactivity in pink grapefruit juice elucidated from model systems and multiresponse modeling.

This study was carried out to assess the impact of pink grapefruit juice composition and structure on the degradation kinetics of lycopene and ß-carotene using model systems and multiresponse modeling. Carotenes were heated at four temperatures in their native matrix (juice) or were extracted and incorporated in water/ethanol emulsion systems formulated with or without ascorbic acid or naringin. Kinetic analysis showed that the rate constants and activation energy were lower for lycopene than for ß-carotene in the juice, while this trend was inversed in the model system. Multiresponse modeling was used to analyze the role of ascorbic acid and naringin in carotene degradation. Ascorbic acid had a very low impact, while naringin significantly increased the carotene degradation and isomerization rates. We concluded that lycopene was more sensitive to thermal degradation and phytochemical interactions than ß-carotene, but this behavior was masked in the fruit juice matrix by better structural protection.

Thermal degradation kinetics of xanthophylls from blood orange in model and real food systems.

Thermal degradation kinetics of the major blood orange xanthophylls (cis-violaxanthin, lutein, ß-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin and cis-antheraxanthin) were investigated at 45, 60, 75, and 90°C in real juice and three model systems formulated to evaluate the impact of xanthophyll form (esterified or free) and pH (acid or neutral). Xanthophylls were monitored by HPLC-DAD and kinetic parameters were identified by non-linear regression. A second order model best fitted the degradation curves of xanthophylls. All degradation rates were the lowest in real juice. Esterified forms were more stable than were the free forms. In all acidic media, ß-cryptoxanthin exhibited the lowest degradation rates followed by lutein and zeaxanthin. In comparison, the epoxy carotenoids cis-violaxanthin and cis-antheraxanthin degraded around 3-fold faster in their esterified form. In their free form, cis-antheraxanthin degraded 30-fold faster while cis-violaxanthin instantaneously disappeared because of the isomerisation of its 5,6-epoxy groups into 5,8-epoxy. By contrast, in neutral medium, free epoxy-xanthophylls were about 2-fold more stable than were the free hydroxy xanthophylls lutein, zeaxanthin and ß-cryptoxanthin. Kinetic behaviours of xanthophylls were closely dependent on their chemical structures.