Optimizing the Extraction of Natural Antioxidants from Peanut Skins

1
Optimizing the Extraction of Natural Antioxidants
from Peanut Skins
Tameshia Ballard1, Kumar Mallikarjunan1, Sean
OKeefe2 1Biological Systems Engineering, 2Food
Science Technology, Virginia Tech
Lipid Oxidation without Antioxidants
Industrial-scale Extraction Process
Microwave-Assisted Extraction
Lipid oxidation is one of the major causes of
deterioration of food products such as meat, meat
products and dairy. Oxidation reactions in food
lead to the development of off-flavors and
off-odors that result in a significant loss of
organoleptic and nutritional quality.
A typical peanut processing plant is capable of
producing approximately 17 tons of peanut skins
per week. The skins are treated as waste material
with no real value to processors. The development
of cost-effective extraction procedures to remove
these highly beneficial antioxidants will create
a new value-added product that can be used in a
variety of food and biomedical applications.
Antioxidant Effect
The food industry currently uses a variety of
synthetic antioxidants such as TBHQ to combat the
effects of lipid oxidation. Due to health
concerns over the use of these synthetic
compounds, more natural sources of antioxidants
are being sought after.
Research Progress

• Optimized the traditional solid-liquid extraction
  process using aqueous methanol, ethanol, ethyl
  acetate and distilled water as solvents. HPLC
  analysis was used for the identification of
  phenolic compounds present in the extracts while
  the Folin total phenol assay was conducted to
  determine relative quantities of antioxidant
  compounds extracted.
• Determined the optimum parameter settings for an
  electronic nose system that will be used to
  assess the antioxidant activity of the extracts
  in two model food systems (peanut paste and
  sunflower oil).
• Next Step
• Optimization of microwave-assisted extraction
  procedure.
• Assessment of the cytotoxicity and antioxidant
  capacity of the extracts in a cell culture model.

Value Added!
Peanut Skins
Value 1 / lb.
Antioxidant Extract Value 100 / lb.
Acknowledgements This material is supported by
the NSF-IGERT grant under Agreement No.
DGE-0333378 Macromolecular Interfaces with Life
Sciences (MILES) Stephen Park and Ben Johnson,
Undergraduate students, Dept. Biological Systems
Engineering