Composition of Mango Peels

Are you aware of Pectin? Pectin belongs to a group of carbohydrates which is used as a stabilizer or a thickening agent in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical businesses. Based from Government’s statistical data, our country had imported about 93,150 kilos of pectin in 2008. The cost incurred in importing Pectin is about P27,000 per kilo.

To find solution to this high cost of importing Pectin, a nine-month research was conducted by PhilMech (the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization). According to PhilMech Executive Director Ricardo Cachuela, the country can still meet its pectin requirements by introducing mango peels which can be used as a raw material to manufacture pectin using a simple extraction process. The laboratory scale production of pectin from mango peels only costs about P6,000 per kilo. The pectin produced from mango peels can be compared with the pectin made from apple pomace. The Bio-Processing Engineering Division of PhilMech headed by Dr. Cristina Gragasin, in partnership with Dr. Rosalinda Torres of DoST-ITDI further explained that five kilograms of mango peels can be used as natural resource to produce a kilogram of pectin. [via mb.com.ph]