International Journal of Food Nutrition and Safety, 2014, 5(1): 11-15
International Journal of Food Nutrition and Safety
ISSN: 2165-896X
Florida, USA
Journal homepage: www.ModernScientificPress.com/Journals/IJFNS.aspx
Review
Nutritional Value and Physiological Effect of Apple Pomace
Humaira Gazalli
1,
*, Altaf Hussain Malik 1, Asif Hassan Sofi 1, Sarfaraz Ahmad Wani 1,
Mohammad Ashraf Pal 1, Ambreen Mir 2, Humaira Ashraf 3
1
Division of Livestock Products Technology, Faculty of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry,
Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir (SKUAST-K),
Ganderbal-190006 (J & K), India
2
Division of Livestock Production and Management, Faculty of Veterinary Science and Animal
Husbandry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir (SKUASTK), Ganderbal-190006 (J & K), India
3
Division of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Sher-e-Kashmir
University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir (SKUAST-K), Ganderbal-190006 (J &
K), India
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: [email protected]; Tel.: +919622631993.
Article history: Received 3 January 2014, Received in revised form 17 February 2014, Accepted 19
February 2014, Published 22 February 2014.
Abstract: Apple pomace is obtained as a main by-product of apple juice industry. It
consists of 25-35% of dry mass of apple. Apple pomace is a good source of dietary fibres,
pectin and antioxidants, and thus has health benefits. Pectin helps in improving texture of
meat products and its antioxidant activity improves the shelf life of the products.
Keywords: apple pomace; dietary fibre; antioxidant activity; by-product; apple juice.
1. Introduction
The health promoting effect of fruits has generally been attributed to their antioxidant
constituents, including vitamins C and E, carotenoids, glutathione, flavonoids and phenolics as well as
Copyright © 2014 by Modern Scientific Press Company, Florida, USA
Int. J. Food Nutr. Saf. 2014, 5(1): 11-15
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other unidentified compounds (Kuhnau, 1976; Hollman et al., 1997; Eberhardt et al., 2000).
Flavonoids (a group of more than 4000 naturally occurring polyphenolics) are effective antioxidants
because of their scavenging properties, chelators of metal ions (Kandaswami and Middleton, 1994),
and may protect tissues against free oxygen radicals and lipid peroxidation. Flavonoids have been cited
frequently as bioactive agents for health maintenance.
Apple pomace is a by-product of the apple juice industry generated during production of apple
juice, abundantly and locally available, safe and can be used in animal feed (Teli 1982; Bhat et al.,
2000) and human food (Masoodi and Chauhan 2007; Verma et al., 2010) without any further
fractionation and purification. Apples are well-known and widespread fruits of the genus Malus (about
25 species) belonging to the family Rosaceae. Apple pomace is the main solid waste generated in apple
juice making factories and contains >80% moisture and it accounts for between 25 and 35% of the
weight of the processed raw material (Gullion et al., 2008).
2. Proximate Composition
As per Ganai et al. (2006), apple pomace contains 7.31-8.53% crude protein, 2.6-3.33% ether
extract, 19.34-20.66 % crude fibre, 3.85-4.7% total ash and 46.4-49% neutral detergent fibre. As per
Sudha et al. (2007), dried apple pomace contains 10.8% moisture, 0.5% ash and 51.1% of dietary fibre.
Apple pomace is a good source of polyphenols and dietary fibre and has antioxidant property (Sudha et
al., 2007). As per Masoodi and Chauhan (2007), apple pomace contains 29.4% neutral detergent fibre
and 13.0% pectin. As per Tiwari et al. (2008), apple pomace contained 4.72% crude protein (CP),
3.22% ether extract and 68.96% nitrogen free extract.
3. Antioxidant Activity
Apple pomace is a good source of polyphenols and dietary fibre and has antioxidant property
(Sudha et al., 2007), which is due to some phytochemicals such as phenolics (from 4.22 to 8.67 mg/g),
total flavonoids (from 0.45 to 1.19 mg/g) and total flavan-3-ols (from 2.27 to 9.51 mg/g) (Cetkovic et
al., 2007). Some individual phenolic compounds including caffeic and chlorogenic acids, (+)-catechin
and (−)-epicatechin, rutin, quercetin glycosides and phloridzin are also present (Cetkovic et al., 2007).
Apple pomace is a rich source of polyphenols, minerals and dietary fibre (Figuerola et al., 2005).
Apple pomace consists of 10-15% of pectin, on a dry weight basis (Oreopoulou and Tzia, 2007). In
view of the fact that most of the polyphenolics remained in the apple pomace, commercial exploitation
of this by-product for the recovery of these compounds seems promising. Polyphenols are one of the
phytochemical groups whose ‘‘protective” properties include antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer and
cardiovascular-protective activities (Sesso et al., 2003; Bendini et al., 2006). Lu and Foo (2000)
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Int. J. Food Nutr. Saf. 2014, 5(1): 11-15
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determined DPPH and superoxide ion radical scavenging activities of apple pomace polyphenols and
also their antioxidant property in the β-carotene/linoleic acid system. The polyphenols examined were
epicatechin, its dimer (procyanidin B2), trimer, tetramer and oligomer, quercetin glycosides,
chlorogenic acid, phloridzin and 3-hydroxyphloridzin. All the compounds showed strong antioxidant
activities and their DPPH-scavenging activities were 2-3 times and superoxide anion radical
scavenging activities were 10-30 times better than those of the antioxidant vitamins C and E.
4. Apple Pomace as a Source of Dietary Fibre and Pectin
Some dietary fibres of fruit have cation exchange capacity (CEC) through unmethylated
galacturonic acid residues and phytic acid, and bind cations such as calcium, cadmium, zinc and
copper (Thibault et al., 1992), while other absorb organic molecules (lignin binds bile acids).
However, their effect is pH dependant. The main echnological functions of isolated fibre components
from food, such as pectin is gelling and thickening agent. Thus, extension of meat and meat products
with dietary fibre from fruits could reduce cost and improve the nutritional quality of the products.
Polysaccharides are the principal structural elements of plant cell walls. The cell wall polymers
consist of cellulose, interconnecting structure between hemicelluloses and pectin within a matrix of
globular and non-globular protein. In view of structural and functional properties, pectin is probably
one of the most interesting cell wall polymers because of its abundance, solubility, response to
chemical reaction (Van Buren, 1979) and numerous industrial applications. The ubiquitous presence of
pectin in fruits and vegetables emphasizes its critical importance in determining the texture of plant
derived processed products. Structurally, pectin represents a group of heterogeneous polysaccharides
of substantial diversity depending on its botanical origin (Huisman et al., 2001). It is mainly
characterized by α-(1,4) linked D-galacturonic acid units esterified with methanol in different
compounds (O’Neill, 1990).
5. Conclusions
Apple pomace being a by-product of apple juice industry has a lot of health benefits as it is a
good source of dietary fibre and antioxidants. Thus, apple pomace can be easily incorporated in food
products for improving its quality in terms of health benefits. Besides, use of apple pomace is
economical.
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Sher-e-Kashmir
University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir (SKUAST-K) for providing financial
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Int. J. Food Nutr. Saf. 2014, 5(1): 11-15
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assistance to carry out the study.
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