Effect of Treatment with Electric Field Pulse on the Extraction of Polyphenols

Abstract

The Pulsed electric field (PEF) is recently used in medicine for the treatment of cancers and tumors in addition to this it is widely used in the food industry as a pre-treatment of the food for the conservation and extraction of vegetal compounds. This paper addresses the application of electrical pulsed generator to extract the polyphenol from vegetal component like the thyme. An experimental study is done and compared to other classical methods. The simulation of the electric field between two flat electrodes gives the optimum value of the electric field which must be applied. t is observed that during treatment with PEF, the temperature increases according to the treatment time, because of the heat dissipated by the joules effect which causes increase in the conductivity of the medium which improves the extraction of polyphenols provided that it must not exceed 50C °. The results found shows that the quantity taken out and the performance of extraction, polyphenol are greater after treatment by Pulsed electric field.