Study of Acidified Aqueous Extraction of Phenolic Compounds from Hibiscus sabdariffa L. calyces

Hibiscus calyces are important sources from anthocyanins and pigments. The recovery of these bioactive compounds using non-organic solvents becomes very attractive for the food industry.For this reason, the separation of phenolic compounds by acidified aqueous extraction from hibiscus calyces was studied. The experiments were conducted by a fractional factorial design.Four factors were evaluated: temperature, time, stirring speed and enzyme concentration. The extracts produced were subjected to analysis of color (L*,a*,b*andChroma), total monomeric anthocyanins, antioxidant capacity by ABTS and fourteen phenolic compounds were quantified. The results showed that the best condition to obtain hibiscus calyces extract was using an enzyme concentration of 50 µL/1000 g hibiscus extract, 400 rpm of stirring speed at 55 ºC by 4 hours of extraction, that corresponded to concentrations of 17595, 7516, 2568 μg/g, expressed on a dry basis, for total phenolic compounds, delphinidin 3-sambubioside and cyanidin 3-sambubioside, respectively, and antioxidant capacity measured by ABTS of 7.8 µmol of Trolox equivalent per gram.