Use of Power Ultrasound to Improve Extraction and Modify Phase Transitions in Food Processing

Ultrasound is well known to have a significant effect on the rate of various processes in the food industry. Using ultrasound, full reproducible food processes can now be completed in seconds or minutes with high reproducibility, reducing the processing cost, simplifying manipulation and work-up, giving higher purity of the final product, eliminating post-treatment of waste water and consuming only a fraction of the time and energy normally needed for conventional processes. Several processes such as freezing, cutting, drying, tempering, bleaching, sterilization, and extraction have been applied efficiently in the food industry. The advantages of using ultrasound for food processing, includes: more effective mixing and micro-mixing, faster energy and mass transfer, reduced thermal and concentration gradients, reduced temperature, selective extraction, reduced equipment size, faster response to process extraction control, faster start-up, increased production, and elimination of process steps. Food processes performed under the action of ultrasound are believed to be affected in part by cavitation phenomena and mass transfer enhancement. This review presents a complete picture of current knowledge on application of ultrasound in food technology including processing, preservation and extraction. It provides the necessary theoretical background and some details about ultrasound the technology, the technique, and safety precautions. We will also discuss some of the factors which make the combination of food processing and ultrasound one of the most promising research areas in the field of modern food engineering. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of polysaccharides from mulberry leaves was studied. The effects of four factors on the yield of polysaccharides were investigated. The results showed that optimum conditions were extraction power of 60W, extraction temperature of 60°C, extraction time of 20min and ratio of water to raw material of 15:1 (ml/g). The three different methods (UAE, MAE and CSE) were compared for extracting polysaccharides from the mulberry leaves by SEM images. Totally, UAE had the largest yield of polysaccharides. The crude polysaccharides obtained from UAE were purified and two components (MPS-1 and MPS-2) were obtained. Their structure was analysed with chemical methods. From FT-IR, they were polysaccharides. MPS-1 had more functional groups than MPS-2. From HP GPC analysis, molecular weights of MPS-1 and MPS-2 were 24898D and 61131D, respectively. From GC analysis, MPS-1 was composed of Sor, Ara, Xyl and Glc, and MPS-2 was composed of Rha, Ara, Xyl, Glc, Gal and Man.