Effect of Pretreatment Methods on Juice Extraction Yield and Nutritional Composition of Cashew Apple ( Anacardium Occidentale L.) Harvested from Binh Phuoc (Vietnam)

Nowadays, cashew trees are mainly cultivated to collect cashew nuts, leading to the large amounts of cashew apples (known as the by-product of the cashew industry) being eliminated due to astringent taste caused by tannin. This is the reason why although cashew apples contain many nutritious compounds as vitamin C, polyphenols, sugars, antioxidants are still underutilized in manufacturing beverages. Hence, aiming to evaluate the potential of cashew in terms of effect of pretreatment methods on extraction yield and nutritional values of extracted cashew apple juice, the organic cashew apples collected in Binh Phuoc, Vietnam were examined. The impact of 11 pretreatment methods including blanching cashew apple in different media and incubating in pectinase on extraction yield, tannin and other nutritional values were evaluated. Using enzyme Pectinex Ultra SP -L 0.01% in 2 hours gave extraction yield of 83.89 +/- 0.4% which was highest compared to other examined pretreatment methods in the study. Enzymatic pretreatment resulted in 36.5% reduction in tannin content and other nutritious values changed slightly. The obtained results emphasis the potential of cashew apples as a raw material for nutritional beverage production in hope of reducing the quantity of discarded cashew apples. Consequently, this study developed methods in order to add economic value to cashew apple and decrease the negative impacts of the cashew industry to the environment.