CHANDRU, RANJALI, P. C.2017-08-052017-08-052016-07-17Th-11136http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810027544Studies on the extraction and characterization of pectin from peels of different types of citrus fruits viz., lemon, lime, orange, pomelo and sweet lime were conducted at PHT Scheme, UAS, GKVK, Bangalore, during 2014 – 2015. Two different methods were tried for stabilizing the peels. Oven dried peels of lemon, orange, pomelo and sweet lime and blanched oven dried peels of lime were selected for studies as this contained high pectin content. Citrus peels are good sources of protein (6.99 % to 12.02 % ), mineral content, 4.15 per cent in Pomelo to 7.07 per cent in Lime, Carotenoids (11.87 to 46.87 μg/g). Orange peels are rich sources of carotenoid pigments (46.87 μg/g). They contained high amounts of tannin (0.09 to 0.76 %) and crude fibre (21.06 to 45.43 %), Pectin was extracted from citrus peel powders using 0.05M of four different acids (HCl, H2SO4, HNO3 and Citric acid) at 80 ºC, pH 2.5 for two different durations (60 and 90 min). Results showed that for lemon and lime peels citric acid yielded high pectin when extracted for 90 min. (21.15 and 15.07 % respectively). Similarly for pomelo and sweet lime H2SO4 at 60 min (28.69 and 28.38 %) and for orange peels H2SO4 at 90 min (32.08 %) yielded higher amounts of pectin. Citrus peel pectins are of low methoxyl content (0.43 – 2.94 %), AUA content varied from (75.15 – 96.09%), gel grade varied from (125- 150) and are of slow gelling pectins taking more than 30 min for setting the gel.ennullThesis