Kinetic study on the thermal and pressure degradation of anthocyanins in strawberries

The degradation of anthocyanins (pelargonidin-3-glucoside) in a strawberry paste during high-temperature/high-pressure treatments was investigated over a temperature range of 80–130 °C and a pressure range of 200–700 MPa, compared to 0.1 MPa. A first-order kinetic model fitted well to all data. At constant pressure, anthocyanin concentration decreased as a function of time and the degradation was accelerated at higher temperatures. At constant temperature, anthocyanins were more rapidly degraded as the pressure increased, but the effect of increasing pressure was smaller than the effect of increasing temperature. Temperature dependence of the degradation rate constants, described by the Arrhenius equation, was higher at atmospheric pressure than at elevated pressures, where all activation energies were comparable. Activation volumes, estimated by the Eyring equation, demonstrated a small pressure dependence of the reaction rate constants. Finally, a model to describe the combined temperature–pressure dependence of the degradation rate constants was proposed.