Vinegar production via spontaneous fermentation of different prickly pear fruit matrices: Changes in chemical composition and biological activities.

Physicochemical and phytochemical analysis revealed significant differences depending on the starting matrix. Moreover, an increase in total phenolic content (TPC) was observed for the majority of samples when transformed from PP juice into PP vinegar revealing thus the role of fermentation in enhancing the bioactive compounds content. Therefore, better antioxidant and antibacterial activities were detected for vinegar samples compared to the initial starting matrix. Using whole PP fruit resulted in better TPC and antioxidant activity, in contrast, sugar addition had no significant effect on any studied data. Analysis of variance taking into account the four studied factors (matrix, variety, with/without peel, and with/without sugar), demonstrated that only the factor "presence or absence of the peel" had a significant influence on the TPC values CONCLUSION: Through this study it was revealed that both the whole PP fruit or PP juice could be used as new raw materials for vinegar production This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.