TITLE:
Kinetics of Enzyme-Assisted Extraction of Tigernut Milks (Cyperus esculentus L.) Using Mixture of Pectinases, Hemicellulases and β-Glucanases
AUTHORS:
Audray Vodounou, Euloge Sènan Adjou, Cyrille Oscar Adantchédé Akotowanou, Adéyèmi Bérane Olubi, Daniel Chougourou, Akadiri Yessoufou, Lamine Said Baba-Moussa, Dominique C. K. Sohounhloué
KEYWORDS:
Cyperus esculentus, Enzymes, Vegetable Milk, Physicochemical Characterization, Benin
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Molecular Imaging,
Vol.14 No.4,
October
30,
2025
ABSTRACT: Tigernut tubers (Cyperus esculentus) are used to produce vegetable milk, however, the presence of pectic substances in the tuber limits the yield of the milk. The present study aims to improve the yields and extraction practice of milk by hydrolysis of pectic substances, using pectinolytic enzymes. The obtained results show that the use of enzymes (Pectinex Ultra SP-L) improves the extraction yields of tigernut milk depending on temperature and incubation times. The highest tigernut milk extraction yields (86.2% ± 1.6% for brown morphotype and 88.7% ± 0.6% for yellow morphotype) are obtained at 60˚C after 90 minutes of incubation. Results of physicochemical characterization of tigernut milks obtained also indicate that the use of an enzyme improves the physicochemical characteristics of the tigernut enzyme-assisted extraction milks compared to the controls. This technical approach makes it possible to produce tigernut milk of good physicochemical quality, which could easily be used by food industries.