Introduction. Camu-camu is
a native Amazonian fruit mainly known for its high vitamin C content.
Its composition confers high antioxidant capacity on this fruit
and makes it a potential source of antioxidant products. The use
of spray-drying with the aid of a carrier agent is a technique that
has been applied for the preservation of important components of
foods and drugs. The objective of our work was to evaluate the influence
of those agents used as shell material on the vitamin content and
total phenolic compounds of camu-camu powder juice obtained by spray-drying.
Materials and methods. A commercial frozen camu-camu
pulp was the raw material; maltodextrin and gum arabic were the selected
carrier agents. Processes were performed in a mini-spray-dryer with
inlet and outlet air temperatures of 180 °C and 85 °C, respectively,
and a drying air flow rate of 700 L·h–1. Laser diffraction was used
to determine the particle size distribution of the samples, and sorption
isotherms of spray-dried camu-camu were measured using a static
gravimetric method. Total phenolic compounds and vitamin C were determined
in the raw pulp and in the powders obtained. Results.
When using gum arabic and maltodextrin as the carrier agents, the moisture
results obtained for the spray-dried camu-camu powders were 2.8%
and 3.2%, respectively; the process yield was 84% and 72%, respectively.
The spray-dried powder produced using gum arabic presented higher contents
of vitamin C [(15,363 ± 226) mg·100 g–1] and phenolic compounds
[(6,654 ± 596) mg GAE·100 g–1] than the powder obtained with maltodextrin, respectively
(11,258 ± 298) mg·100 g–1 and (5,912 ± 582) mg GAE·100 g–1. Conclusions.
The concentration factors for the vitamin C and phenolic compounds
in camu-camu powder reveal the effectiveness of spray-drying to
preserve the antioxidant capacity of this fruit. Gum arabic was
a more effective barrier than maltodextrin for bioactive compound
retention.
