The assesement of bioactive potential and sensory acceptability of coffee and its byproducts- cascara and silverskin

Abstract

Through the decades, coffee has been representing one of the most consumed beverages worldwide and consequently, during the coffee cherry processing, significant amount of coffee byproducts is generating, thus ending as an agro- industrial waste. Besides macro and micronutrient content, coffee cascara and coffee silverskin are coffee by-products which can have valuable bioactive potential. For that purpose, ethanol extracts and water infusions (beverages) of green coffee, roasted coffee, coffee cascara and coffee silverskin were analysed for total phenolic content, antioxidant capacity and individual identification of polyphenolic compounds by High Performance Liquid Chromatography Analysis paired with Photo-Diode Array detector (HPLC- PDA), with further sensory analysis of beverages. Results showed that beverages were generally evaluated with the higher bioactive potential than ethanol extracts, while roasted coffee beverages exhibited the highest content of TPC and antioxidant capacity in comparison to the ethanol extract. Among all samples, green coffee beverage was evaluated as the most valuable source of 5-caffeoylquinic acid (36.7 mg/g dw), while coffee cascara (9.2 mg/g dw) contained the highest content of caffeine. Although roasted beverage expectedly scored as the highest acceptable (6.2), silverskin and cascara were evaluated with relatively satisfactory results of the overall acceptability (4.6- 5.2), thus showing the potential for the improvement in terms of preparation and, furthermore, greater consumer acceptance.