ABSTRACT
Coffee pulp (CP) is the main solid by-product of the wet processing of coffee cherries and it represents about 40% of the cherry’s fresh weight. More than 400,000 tons of coffee pulp is produced in Mexico per year. Traditional applications utilize only a fraction of the available material. Therefore, it is necessary to find alternative uses for this by-product. One of the most promising applications for the use of coffee pulp consists of the extraction purification and biotransformation of valuable phenolic compounds. Through this process, powerful natural antioxidants, with diverse industrial applications can be obtained. Furthermore, phenolics free CP could be used in some other application, such as bio-fertilizer, animal feed, among others.
Several classes of polyphenols have been identified in coffee pulp such as flavanols, flavonols, anthocyanidins, hydroxycinnamic acids and their derivatives. However, the amount and distribution of phenolics in CP may differ radically from one study to another. This variability could be 108due to the origin of coffee samples (e.g., cultivar, place of origin, culture conditions, ripening stage, etc.), the post-harvest management (methods of pulping, drying, storage, etc.), or even to the analytical methods used.
In this chapter, we will review the available information on the content of phenolic compounds in CP, as well as the methods used for its extraction, recovery, isolation, and purification. The biotransformation and enzymatic modification of these phenolic compounds will also be discussed.
