NMR-Based Characterization of Citrus Tacle Juice and Low-Level NMR and UV-Vis Data Fusion for Monitoring Its Fractions from Membrane-Based Operations

Tacle is a citrus variety which recently gained further interest due to its antioxidant and biological properties. This study suggests using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) imaging to characterize Tacle juice's metabolic composition as it is intimately linked to its quality. First, polar and apolar solvent systems were used to identify a significant fraction of the Tacle metabolome. Furthermore, the antioxidant capacity and the total content of flavonoids, polyphenols and β-carotene in the juice were investigated with UV-Visible spectroscopy. Tacle juice was clarified and fractionated by ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes in order to recover and purify its bioactive principles. Finally, the second part of this work sheds light on the spectrophotometric assays and H-NMR spectra of fractions coming from membrane operations coupled with a multivariate data analysis technique, PCA, to explore the impact of UF and NF processes on the metabolic profile of the juice.