Gac Fruit

This book provides the latest research on gac fruit, from cultivation through to processing technologies for health products. It addresses several techniques on propagation and cultivation in order to increase the production and quality of Gac fruit, including traditionally used parts of the fruit (aril) and those whose value has not yet been maximized (peel, pulp and seed). This plant has the potential to be a high value crop, particularly as parts of the fruit can be processed into nutrient supplements and/or natural colorants. It has an exceptional potential in the world carotenoids market of about US $ 1.4 billion (2017), which will be growing steadily, up to US $ 6.9 billion by 2026. As such, this book contains special emphasis on: improving production of Gac fruit; novel extraction of Gac oil rich in beta-carotene and lycopene from aril and peel; encapsulation of Gac oil rich in beta-carotene and lycopene; and practical applied technologies such as microwave drying, heat pump drying, freeze drying, ultrasound assisted extraction, supercritical CO2 extraction, encapsulation techniques are all presented.