Faba bean hulls as a potential source of pectin.

This study aimed for the first time to assess the potential use of faba bean hulls as a source of pectin. The study involved extracting pectin under various conditions of pH, temperature and extraction time and determining how these conditions affected pectin yield and its characteristics. The maximum yield of extracted pectin did not coincide with the highest degree of esterification since the maximum yield (15.75 %) was recorded at pH 1.5 and at a temperature of 85 °C for an 80-min extraction period and solid to liquid (1: 25) ratio, while the highest degree of esterification (54.62 %) occurred at pH 2.5 and at temperature of 90 °C for a 60-min extraction period. The composition of the pectin varied according to the extraction conditions: the neutral sugars galactose, arabinose and rhamnose increased under milder extraction conditions while glucose, mannose and xylose sugars predominated under harsher extraction conditions. The results indicated that faba bean hulls contains adequate amount of pectin, suitable for commercial utilization.