Enzyme-assisted extraction of flavorings and colorants from plant materials

From times immemorial, colorants, and flavorings have been used in foods. Color and flavor are the major attributes to the quality of a food product, affecting the appearance and acceptance of the product. As a consequence of the increased demand of natural flavoring and colorant from industries, there is a renewed interest in the research on the composition and recovery of natural food flavors and colors. Over the years, numerous procedures have been proposed for the isolation of aromatic compounds and colors from plant materials. Generally, the methods of extraction followed for aroma and pigment from plant materials are solvent extraction, hydro-distillation, steam distillation, and super critical carbon dioxide extraction. The application of enzymes in the extraction of oil from oil seeds like sunflower, corn, coconut, olives, avocado etc. are reported in literature. There is a great potential for this enzyme-based extraction technology with the selection of appropriate enzymes with optimized operating conditions. Various enzyme combinations are used to loosen the structural integrity of botanical material thereby enhancing the extraction of the desired flavor and color components. Recently enzymes have been used for the extraction of flavor and color from plant materials, as a pre-treatment of the raw material before subjecting the plant material to hydro distillation/solvent extraction. A deep knowledge of enzymes, their mode of action, conditions for optimum activity, and selection of the right type of enzymes are essential to use them effectively for extraction. Although the enzyme hydrolases such as lipases, proteases (chymotrypsin, subtilisin, thermolysin, and papain), esterases use water as a substrate for the reaction, they are also able to accept other nucleophiles such as alcohols, amines, thio-esters, and oximes. Advantages of enzyme-assisted extraction of flavor and color in some of the plant materials in comparison with conventional methods are dealt with in this reveiw.