Inna Anataichuk

A simple mechanical method (grinding and sieving) was proposed to separate the composite into carotenoid-enriched and LDH-enriched materials. The method is based on the internal self-abrasion of the composite when grinding solid particles of LDH as grinding bodies. When removing carotenoids in the form of a composite, rapid precipitation of the sediment and ease of filtration under vacuum were found. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the composite and products of its separation contain X-ray amorphous Zn-Al LDH, an oxide phase, and an amorphous phase of carotenoids. The method of dichloroethane extraction proved the effectiveness of the composite separation process. It was shown that for the optimal amount of Zn-Al LDH, the content of carotenoids in carotenoid-enriched material was 24.4 %, and in LDH-enriched – 4.4 %. For these conditions, it was found that the total yield of carotenoids was 184.3 mg/100 g of pumpkin pulp, of which 155.4 mg/100 g was in the carotenoid-enriched material and 28.9 mg/100 g was in the LDH-enriched material. A hypothesis was expressed regarding the chemical nature of the interaction of carotenoids and LDH in the composite due to π-d interaction. The resulting carotenoid-containing materials can be used as food additives or processed to obtain purified carotenoids.