FROM SEED TO JUICE: EVALUATING MORINGA OLEIFERA AS A VEGAN CLARIFYING AGENT FOR CAJUÍNA

Abstract: Cajuína is a traditional Brazilian beverage made from clarified and pasteurized cashew apple juice, characterized by its distinct yellow color resulting from ascorbic acid degradation and sugar caramelization. Gelatin, an animal-derived product, is traditionally used as a clarifying agent. Aiming to develop a 100% vegan cajuína, this study evaluated the use of Moringa oleifera seed flour as a clarifying agent and its impact on the bioactive compounds of the final product. An aqueous extraction was performed using defatted seed flour at pH 8 and 12, yielding total fractions (PMT8, PMT12) and supernatants (PMS8, PMS12), which were evaluated alongside negative (unclarified juice - Blank) and positive (gelatin - Standard) controls. The samples were analyzed for hydrolysable tannins according to Chandran and Indira (2016) (mg tannic acid/100 mL at 700 nm), condensed tannins according to Julkunen-Tiitto (1985) (vanillin-HCl assay, results in mg catechin/100 mL at 500 nm), total phenolics according to Salvador  et al. (2019) (gallic acid standard curve at 750 nm by Folin-Ciocateau method), ascorbic acid (Tillmans solution titrimetric method, DFI 0.02%), turbidity (NTU), to evaluate clarification efficiency, and instrumental color (L*, Hue angle hº, and color difference ΔE*). Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), and means were compared using Tukey's test (p < 0.05). PMT12 (2.81±0.42b) and PMS12 (2.61±0.03b) achieved the same efficiency in reducing condensed tannins as the standard (2.70±0.21b) gelatin sample, whereas PMT8 (1.63±0.12c) and PMS8 (1.68±0.06c) exhibited even lower values, demonstrating superior efficiency in removing these compounds, which represents optimal behavior for physical beverage stability. Concentrations of total phenolics and ascorbic acid showed no significant differences across all evaluated cajuína samples, demonstrating that variations in the clarifying agent did not affect the retention of these bioactive compounds. Regarding turbidity, a critical quality parameter for clarified beverages, the unclarified control (Blank) (153.40±0.20a) presented the highest value. All clarification treatments significantly reduced turbidity, with PMS12 (31.93±0.46c) and the Standard (2.03±0.26f) displaying the highest and lowest turbidity among clarified samples, respectively. Turbidity directly affected L* and ΔE*, with PMT8 being visually closest to the standard gelatin control. Variations in Hue angle (hº 130.38–213.99) indicate that residual turbid compounds intensified thermal browning in cajuína. Notably, the PMS8 sample exhibited superior clarification performance among the plant-based treatments, achieving a turbidity reduction of approximately 87% compared to the unclarified cashew juice. These findings demonstrate that Moringa oleifera seed extracts, particularly PMS8, represent a promising vegan alternative for cajuína processing while preserving its bioactive potential.

Aknowledgments: This study was financed in part by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) - Grant/Process number130915/2024-6.