STARCH EXTRACTION FROM THE PEACH PALM (Bactris gasepaes Kunth.) FRUIT: A MODEL APPROACH FOR YIELD INCREASE

Abstract

ABSTRACT The objective was to study the starch extraction process of the peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth.) fruit focused on increasing yield and in preserving the quality characteristics the extracted product. Two experimental designs are carried out in order to investigate the effects of NaOH and NaHSO3 concentrations, as well as the decantation time, on the yield of starch and on product color. Firstly, a 23 full factorial design provided a linear model with 95% of confidence, indicating major tendencies for optimization. Secondly, a 22 central composite design rendered a quadratic model which allowed the maximization of yield (it 9.0% higher) without compromising the color of the product. The maximum yield of 23.90%, validated with triplicate experiments, is considerably higher than the yield of starch from other fruits reported in literature.

Keywords

• design of experiments
• response surface methodology
• native starch