Comparative study of extraction methods for pistachio hull antioxidants by multiple assays

In recent years, the use of natural antioxidants extracted from agricultural and industrial by-products has been increased because of sustainability, high and stable antioxidant activity, absence of toxicity. These extracts can be used as substitute of synthetic antioxidants for food products, color and oxidative stabilization. In this study, experimental design and response surface methodology (RSM) were used to optimize experimental variables such as sample weight (g), irradiation power and time (s) in microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) of antioxidants from pistachio hull. Effect of sample weight was found to be significant on total phenolic content (TPC), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), scavenging activity of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and extraction yields. The optimal conditions were water as solvent, particle size of 0.25 mm, microwave power 600 W, sample weight 0.2 g, irradiation time of 150 s. Finally, comparison of extraction methods was shown that MAE method gave better results than ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) and conventional methods with the optimum operating conditions like time and energy consumption.