Enhancing the Quality of Pomegranate Pomace Powder: Impact of Multipin Atmospheric Nonthermal Plasma on Physical, Bioactive, and Antinutritional Properties

Pomegranate pomace is a major byproduct from juice production, is often underutilized, even though it is a rich source of bioactive compounds and dietary fibers. However, its use in food formulations is bound by antinutritional factors and low functional properties, requiring innovative techniques like Multipin atmospheric nonthermal plasma (MANTP) to enhance its value. MANTP is an ecofriendly technology that can modify or alter the food materials without any significant degradation in nutritional attributes. This research was aimed to study the effects of MANTP treatment on pomegranate pomace powder (PPP) on bioactive compounds like total phenols, flavonoids, and antinutritional contents, physical characteristics, and morphological changes. MANTP treatment was applied on PPP at three different voltage levels (15, 25, and 35 kV) with three different time (10, 20, and 30 min) at each voltage. Different analytical methods, such as FTIR, XRD, and SEM, were used for characterization. The treatment has affected the quality of food material by enhancing the bioactive compounds such as increment in total phenols (76.63 ± 1.47 to 106.74 ± 5.87 GAE mg/100 g), and total flavonoids (8.186 ± 0.000 to 14.108 ± 0.461 QE mg/100 g) and significantly reducing the antinutritional factors such as phytic acid, condensed tannins, and saponins at higher voltage of MANTP treatment. The MANTP treatment also affected the physicochemical properties by drastically reducing the water activity (0.5406–0.2837), and increasing water solubility index and water absorption capacity. XRD curves depicted that there was a reduction in the degree of crystallinity post-MANTP treatment, making it more amorphous, which can be seen in SEM images.