Cinthia Milleny Costa Nascimento¹, Renata Pires de Camargo Mascarenhas^1,2, Larissa Consoli³ and Natan de Jesus Pimentel-Filho¹

¹Laboratory of Food Microbiology Advanced Studies (FoMAS), Centro de Ciências da Natureza, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Rodovia Lauri Simões de Barros, Km 12 – SP189, Buri 18290-000, SP, Brazil
²Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias para a Sustentabilidade, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Rodovia João Leme dos Santos, Km 110 – SP-264, Sorocaba 18052-780, SP, Brazil
³Centro de Ciências da Natureza, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Rodovia Lauri Simões de Barros, Km 12 – SP189, Buri 18290-000, SP, Brazil

*Corresponding Author: Natan de Jesus Pimentel-Filho, Laboratory of Food Micro- biology Advanced Studies (FoMAS), Centro de Ciências da Natureza, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Rodovia Lauri Simões de Barros, Km 12 – SP189, Buri 18290- 000, SP, Brazil.

Received: July 16, 2026; Published: July 27, 2026

Abstract

The search for effective strategies to reduce food contamination and the incidence of foodborne diseases has increased interest in natural bioactive compounds as alternatives to synthetic food preservatives. Among these, fruit processing by-products represent promising and sustainable sources of antioxidant compounds. This study evaluated the extraction of bioactive compounds from a seed-rich acerola (Malpighia emarginata DC.) processing residue using different extraction solvents and assessed the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of the resulting extracts. Hydroethanolic solvents, particularly 50% ethanol, provided the best overall extraction performance, yielding high concentrations of total phenolic compounds (35.26 ± 0.38 mg GAE/100 mL) and vitamin C (1.79 ± 0.05 mg ascorbic acid/100 mL), which were associated with greater antioxidant capacity (1118.22 and 2551.29 μmol TE/L by the DPPH and ABTS assays, respectively). Protein recovery was negligible under the evaluated conditions. Among all extracts, only the acidified 70% ethanol extract exhibited a slight antimicrobial effect against Lactococcus lactis ATCC 19435. Overall, hydroethanolic extraction represents an effective and sustainable approach for recovering antioxidant compounds from seed-rich acerola processing residues. Although the extracts demonstrated considerable antioxidant potential, they exhibited negligible antibacterial activity under the conditions evaluated, supporting their application primarily as antioxidant-rich natural food ingredients.

Keywords: Agro-Industrial By-Products; Biotechnology; Malpighia emarginata DC.; Sustainability; Antimicrobial Activity; Antioxidant Capacity

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Citation

Citation: Natan de Jesus Pimentel-Filho., et al. “Influence of Different Solvents on the Extraction of Bioactive Compounds from Acerola Processing Resi- dues". Acta Scientific Microbiology 9.8 (2026): 45-57.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2026 Natan de Jesus Pimentel-Filho., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.