Essential Oil Composition, Antioxidant Activity, Phenolic Compounds, Total Phenolic and Flavonoid Contents from Pomace of Citrus aurantifolia

The massive pomace of Citrus aurantofolia (Christm.) Swingle exhibits a challenging losses exposure difficulty for the processing industries. The resent study was aimed to evaluate the composition and quality of pomace and understand its bioactive compounds to introduce it to different industries such as pharmaceutical, food, medicinal, agricultural etcetera for optimum use. Volatile compounds (VCs) were extracted by water distillation (WD) and Static headspace (SHS) methods. Four different extracts were analyzed for polyphenol compounds identified by HPLC-DAD, total flavonoid content (TFC), total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity. Limonene (71.7%), -pinene (8.5%), -terpinene (7.3%), myrcene (1.8%) and -pinene (1.7%), were the main compounds of essential oil (EO) of C. aurantifolia pomace by HD extraction. The dominant VCs of C. aurantifolia were limonene (49.3%) followed by -pinene (21.7%), -terpinene (9%), -pinene (6.8%) and sabinene (4.9%), respectively by static headspace analysis. Trans-ferulic acid was major polyphenol compound in all studied extracts of C. aurantifolia marcs. Methanolic extracts from C. aurantifolia pomaces represented higher antioxidant activity, TPC and TFC than other investigated extracts. This studied marc can be introduced to different industries as a source of bioactive and medicinal natural compounds because of its valuable phytochemical characterization.