Cashew juice containing prebiotic oligosaccharides.

The enzyme dextransucrase in a medium containing sucrose and an acceptor as substrate synthesizes prebiotics oligosaccharides. The cashew apple juice works as a source of acceptors because it is rich in glucose and fructose (enzyme acceptors). The use of cashew apple juice becomes interesting because it aims at harnessing the peduncle of the cashew that is wasted during the nut processing, which is the product of greater economic expression. The production of dextransucrase enzyme was done by fermentative process by inoculating the bacterium Leuconostoc mesenteroides NRRL B512F into a culture medium containing sucrose as the only carbon source. Thus, the aim of this work was the production of prebiotic oligosaccharides by enzymatic process with addition of the dextransucrase enzyme to the clarified cashew apple juice. Dextran yield was favored by the combination of low concentrations of sucrose and reducing sugars. The formation of oligosaccharides was favored by increasing the concentration of reducing sugars and by the combination of high concentrations of sucrose and reducing sugars, the highest concentration of oligosaccharides obtained was 104.73 g/L and the qualitative analysis showed that at concentrations of 25 g/L and 75 g/L of sucrose and reducing sugar, respectively, it is possible to obtain oligosaccharides of degree of polymerization up to 12. The juice containing prebiotic oligosaccharide is a potential new functional beverage.