Oil Recovery from Jalapeño Pepper By-Products and Analysis of the Industrial Scalding Process on Its Nutraceutical Potential

Abstract: Vegetable by-products represent a valuable source of compounds with biological activity that could be used in food and cosmetics industries. The objective of this work is the valorization through the lipophilic nutraceuticals characterization and in vitro antioxidant activity of Jalapeño pepper industrial by-product oil, and the remainder flour from oil extraction. Jalapeño pepper by-products and whole fruit from two regions: Chihuahua and Sinaloa States from Mexico were obtained from a local industry. From the whole fruit it was prepared a simulated raw by-product, in order to use it to evaluate the effect of industrial scalding process on the by-product. The Jalapeño pepper by-product contain around 22% of oil with important lipophilic nutraceuticals, the oil has a greenness color, and remains attractive concentrations of essential fatty acids, more than 70% of linoleic acid; β-carotene up to 1.85 mg/100 g of oil; α-tocopherol (46.12 mg/100 g of oil) up to four times more than red pepper seeds (C. annuum). Moreover, two and a half and five times more capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin, respectively, were detected in the oil fraction, than the reported before in no polar extract from whole fruit of C. frutescens. The scalding process reduces the β-carotene, capsaicinoids, and total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of the oil fraction, but despite of this, Jalapeño pepper by-product oil and remainder flour contain bioactive compounds at similar concentrations to previously reports in other peppers. The Jalapeño pepper by-products derived by the food industry have the potential to be used for the recovery of an oil with nutraceutical potential. Graphic Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]