Characterization of custard apple seeds for the separation of prebiotic low molecular weight carbohydrates (LMWC)

The concept of waste to wealth is gaining lot of importance in the recent days. In this context, the present study was undertaken to identify the potential prebiotics present in the custard apple seeds. Among the different components identified, the Low Molecular Weight Carbohydrates (LMWC) were chosen for the study and the extraction was performed using Ethanol at three different concentrations (50%, 75% and 95%) and different combination of temperature, time and speed of rotation. The maximum yield of 9.16% was obtained with 50% Ethanol, 37 0C, 72h and 60 rpm. The probiotic organism Lactobacillus bulgaricus displayed a positive growth of 7.54±0.04 log cfu/ml on LMWC over a period of 24 hours which confirmed the prebiotic functionality of LMWC. Scanning Electron Microscopy and FTIR analysis were done to confirm the morphological characteristics. Therefore, all the results obtained showed that LMWC can be used as potential prebiotics in the food industry and the commercial utilization of custard apple seeds.