Abstract Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass using ionic liquids (ILs) has been widely studied and is considered one of the most promising methods to obtain fermentable sugars. However, few data exist on the fermentation of reducing sugars (RS) obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass pretreated with ionic liquids for the production of ethanol. Therefore, this study evaluated the production of ethanol from sugars liberated from sawdust of Pinus sp. and Eucalyptus sp. pretreated with ionic liquid [C4mim][OAc] and [C2mim][OAc], hydrolyzed with enzymes of Penicillium echinulatum employing Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe Y698 yeasts. The data indicate that when the biomass is pre-treated by [C2mim][OAc] there is higher production of ethanol that, when treated by [C4mim][OAc] for both evaluated yeasts, even though the pretreatment with [C2mim] [OAc] caused the highest losses of cellulose and hemicellulose. Under the conditions analyzed, it is possible to produce approximately 40 and 47 L of ethanol per ton of Pinus sp. and Eucalyptus sp, respectively. In addition to contributing to knowledge about the physiology of the yeasts in the sugars liberated from biomass pretreated in presence of ionic liquid, this data is also relevant to the development of processes for the production of lignocellulosic ethanol.

In the present study, the effect of pectinases on the production of pulp and juice of araçá and the presence of bioactive compounds were evaluated. An enzyme extract (EE) produced by Aspergillus niger LB-02-SF in solid state fermentation and the commercial enzyme Ultrazym®AFP-L were used in this study. After enzyme treatment with the EE preparation, the extraction yield increased by 23.1% and viscosity decreased by 42.8%, during pulp maceration. During juice processing, there was an increase of 70.6% in clarification and a decrease of 72.87% in turbidity. Higher values of these parameters, 47.7, 69.0, 80.7, and 79.7%, respectively, were obtained using the Ultrazym®AFP-L, which also led to a significant increase in the polyphenol content, both in the pulp (24%) and in the juice (28%), with a less pronounced effect when the EE was applied (10 and 21%, respectively). The anthocyanins content in the araçá pulp increased after treatment with the commercial preparation (23%), and there was no significant increase with the use of EE. The use of Ultrazym®AFP-L increased the β-carotene content by 29.4% in the fruit pulp, while the treatment with EE did not result in significant changes compared with those of the juice and pulp controls.

The effect of freezing and processing technology on the antioxidant capacity of grape (Vitis vinifera), apple (Malus domestica), strawberry (Fragaria x Anassa), pear (Pyrus communis L.), guava (Psidium guajava L.), and fig (Ficus carica L.) was evaluated for 90 days. Under a storage temperature of -15 º C, there was no significant difference in the antioxidant capacity of grape and fig pulp, and a higher antioxidant capacity was found for guava pulp (27 µmol/g). While the technological processing did not affect the antioxidant capacity of pear and apple jellies, all other jellies studied showed a reduced antioxidant capacity. The processing reduced the antioxidant capacity of grapes in 45%. Among the fruit products, the highest antioxidant activities were found for guava pulp and jelly (27 and 25 µmol/g, respectively), followed by grape pulp (22 µmol/g).