Food Chemistry 221 (2017) 969–975

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Food Chemistry
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Bioactives of coffee cherry pulp and its utilisation for production

of Cascara beverage
Andrea Heeger a,b, Agnieszka Kosińska-Cagnazzo a,⇑, Ennio Cantergiani c, Wilfried Andlauer a
a
Institute of Life Technologies, HES-SO Valais Wallis, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Route du Rawyl 47, CH-1950 Sion, Switzerland
b
Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 11-13, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
c
Carasso-Bossert SA, Rue des Sablières 4-6, CH-1217 Meyrin, Switzerland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Coffee cherry pulp is a by-product obtained during coffee production. Coffee cherry pulp contains consid-
Received 12 April 2016 erable amounts of phenolic compounds and caffeine. An attempt to produce Cascara, a refreshing bever-
Received in revised form 15 November 2016 age, has been made. Six dried coffee pulp samples and a beverage called Cascara produced in Switzerland
Accepted 15 November 2016
out of one of those samples were investigated. Aqueous extraction of coffee pulps revealed a content of
Available online 16 November 2016
total polyphenols between 4.9 and 9.2 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g DM. The antioxidant capacity
was between 51 and 92 lmol Trolox equivalents (TE)/g DM as measured by the assay with ABTS radical.
Keywords:
Bourbon variety from Congo and maragogype variety showed highest caffeine contents with 6.5 and
Coffee cherry pulp
Bioactives
6.8 mg/g DM. In all samples chlorogenic acid, protocatechuic acid, gallic acid and rutin were present.
Polyphenols The beverage Cascara contained 226 mg/L of caffeine and 283 mg GAE/L of total polyphenols whereas
Caffeine antioxidant capacity amounted to 8.9 mmol TE/L.
HPLC Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Functional beverage

1. Introduction
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted coffee beans and
highly popular worldwide. Coffee plants are farmed in tropical
areas whereas the beverage is consumed mainly in Europe and in
the United States. Arabica (Coffea arabica) and Robusta (Coffea
canephora) are the two varieties dominating the international
markets.
Coffee cherry consists of skin, pulp, mucilage, parchment, silver-
skin and coffee bean. Skin, also called pericarp, turns red in
ripeness. Below the skin there is the yellowish, fibrous and sweet
pulp, the outer mesocarp. This covers a thin layer of mucilage,
the so called pectin layer. The next component is the parchment
or endocarp, which is followed by the silverskin. In the centre of
the fruit there is the coffee bean, the endosperm of the fruit
(Esquivel & Jiménez, 2012). The coffee bean is used to produce
the actual coffee beverage. However, the processing of coffee
cherry into coffee beans is quite complex and generates a variety
of wastes. Ripened fruits are harvested and transformed by mainly
two ways of processing: wet or dry process. In the dry process the
coffee cherries are sun-dried, followed by a de-hulling step. The
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: s7anheeg@uni-bonn.de (A. Heeger), agnieszka.kosinska@hevs.
ch (A. Kosińska-Cagnazzo), ecantergiani@carasso.ch (E. Cantergiani), wilfried.
andlauer@hevs.ch (W. Andlauer).
skin, pulp, mucilage, parchment and parts of the silverskin are
removed during the de-hulling. The by-product that occurs is
called husk (Esquivel & Jiménez, 2012). The wet process separates
ripened and unripe fruits in water; ripe fruit sink to the ground
whereas the unripe coffee cherries remain on the surface. After this
separation pulp and the skin are removed with the aid of a pulper.
Several authors call the obtained fraction pulp (Bressani, 1978;
Murthy & Naidu, 2012; Pandey et al., 2000). The de-pulping is
followed by a fermentation step where the mucilage and remnants
of the pulp are removed. The beans are then de-hulled; that means
the parchment is removed and dried (Esquivel & Jiménez, 2012;
Pandey et al., 2000). More recently a third, semi-dry process has
been developed, also known as honey process. In this semi-dry
process coffee cherries are de-pulped without subsequent
fermentation step (Duarte, Pereira, & Farah, 2010). Coffee pulp is
the main residue obtained during wet and semi-dry processing
(Bonilla-Hermosa, Duarte, & Schwan, 2014). Independently from
preparation process the obtained bean is roasted, generating typi-
cal coffee flavour, aroma and colour (Murthy & Naidu, 2012).
Fresh coffee cherries contain over 430 g of coffee cherry pulp
per kg, the pulp represents nearly 30% of the dry matter (DM) of
the coffee berry (Bressani, 1978). With an average annual produc-
tion of ten million tons of coffee beans a huge amount of pulp as
by-product is generated. It is also worth mentioning that consider-
able amount of wastes comes from production of instant coffee as
well as from coffee brewing in restaurants (Jiménez-Zamora,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2016.11.067
0308-8146/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
970 A. Heeger et al. / Food Chemistry 221 (2017) 969–975
Pastoriza, & Rufián-Henares, 2015). Due to the content of caffeine,
polyphenols and tannins the pulp causes environmental problems
in coffee producing countries if it is disposed without the necessary
pre-treatment (Murthy & Naidu, 2012). Several attempts for a val-
orisation of the pulp have been made. For instance, coffee pulp can
be used for the production of compost and for vermi-composting
(Murthy & Naidu, 2012; Pandey et al., 2000). The direct use for ani-
mal feed is limited due to the presence of anti-nutritional factors
such as caffeine and tannins (Esquivel & Jiménez, 2012). The addi-
tion of pulp to feed has been reported for ruminants, pigs chicken
and rabbits (Murthy & Naidu, 2012). A diet containing 30% coffee
pulp has been successfully tested for the fish tilapia (Bayne,
Dunseth, & Ramirios, 1976). There have been several attempts of
reducing the content of antinutrients with physical, chemical and
microbial methods, where the degradation with bacteria and fungi
seems to be most promising (Pandey et al., 2000). Also ensiling was
reported to be an effective method (Ulloa Rojas, Verreth, Amato, &
Huisman, 2003). Coffee husk can also be used for the cultivation of
mushrooms. By fermentation with Aspergillus, citric acid, gibberel-
lic acid and enzymes have been produced (Murthy & Naidu, 2012;
Pandey et al., 2000). Yeasts and fungi produce bioethanol and
promising aroma compounds on coffee husk or pulp (Bonilla-
Hermosa et al., 2014). There have also been attempts to use coffee
pulp for biogas production (Pandey et al., 2000) and the production
of pellets for heating has been tested (Cubero-Abarca, Moya,
Valaret, & Tomazello Filho, 2014). Pyrolysis of coffee pulp impreg-
nated with phosphoric acid yield a material with high adsorption
capacity. Hydrolysis of the pulp is another promising process to
obtain sugars such as xylose, arabinose, fructose, glucose, sucrose
and maltose (Murthy & Naidu, 2012; Pandey et al., 2000). Fresh
coffee pulp is a source of anthocyanins which could be used as
natural colorants for food (del Castillo, Fernandez-Gomez,
Martinez-Saez, Iriondo, & Mesa, in press). Recently a coffee pulp
flour has been developed which has a fibre content of 18%
(Ramirez Velez & Jaramillo Lopez, 2015).
Unroasted Arabica coffee beans (green coffee) contain 9–12.5%
of soluble carbohydrates, 45–63% of insoluble carbohydrates,
8.5–12% proteins, 15–18% lipids, 0.8–1.4% caffeine, 6.7–9.2%
chlorogenic acid, and 3–5.4% minerals (Belitz, Grosch, &
Schieberle, 2009). Coffee pulp contains about 50% of carbohydrates,
10% protein, 20% fibres, 2.5% fat, and 1.3% caffeine, it also contains
phenolic compounds (Pandey et al., 2000). The composition of
phenolic compounds in coffee pulp has been a subject of some
studies in recent years. Four major classes of phenolic compounds
identified were: flavan-3-ols (monomers and procyanidins),
hydroxycinnamic acids, flavonols, and anthocyanidins (Ramirez-
Coronel et al., 2004) with chlorogenic acid as predominant
phenolic compound (Rodríguez-Durán et al., 2014). It was shown
that coffee cherry pulp is a potential source of antioxidants and
phenolic compounds which should not be wasted. Since coffee
cherry pulp and coffee beans contain similar components dried
coffee cherry pulp can be used to produce a refreshing and stimu-
lating beverage called Cascara (cascara: Spanish word for husk).
Cascara, also known as coffee cherry tea, is an infusion of dried cof-
fee cherry pulp. The approach to valorise food byproducts by
preparing an infusion out of it, has already been described for other
agricultural byproducts such as coffee silverskin (Martinez-Saez
et al., 2014) or buckwheat hulls (Zielińska, Szawara-Nowak, &
Zieliński, 2013). Functional beverages largely contribute to the
globally growing market of functional food (Corbo, Bevilacqua,
Petruzzi, Casanova, & Sinigaglia, 2014). The authors of the above
cited review list the use of by-products of fruit and food industries
as functional ingredients as one of the main approaches in the area
of the research and innovation in the food field. Coffee silverskin
extract was utilised for production of antioxidant beverage for
preventing fat accumulation (Martinez-Saez et al., 2014).
The aim of this study was to quantify the bioactives and deter-
mine the antioxidant capacity of six dried coffee cherry pulp
samples as well as to characterise Cascara ready-to-drink beverage
commercially produced in Switzerland from coffee cherry pulp.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Coffee cherry pulp and Cascara samples
Six coffee cherry pulp samples of different Coffea arabica vari-
eties, origin and processing and a commercial coffee cherry tea
have been provided by La Semeuse SA (La Chaux-de-Fonds,
Switzerland). The samples of coffee cherry pulp varied strongly
in particle size (Fig. 1). The detailed information about the coffee
variety, origin and type of process from which the samples are
obtained is indicated in the Table 1. All coffee pulp samples were
grown in 2015 using organic cultivation. Cascara beverage was
developed and produced at La Semeuse SA from the coffee cherry
pulp scarcely described, which was a mix of different varieties.
The beverage was produced with 65.6 g DM coffee pulp per L of
water, it was infused for 6.5 min at 90 °C. After infusion 71 g of
sugar and 5.7 mL of lemon juice was added per L of beverage.
The beverage was bottled and pasteurised at 83 °C for 30 min.
2.2. Reagents
All reagents used were at least of analytical grade. Folin-
Ciocalteu’s phenol reagent, gallic acid, (+)catechin, rutin, vanilic
acid, chlorogenic acid, syringic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid,
quercetin, protocatechuic acid, gentisic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic
acid, caffeic acid, sinapic acid, tyrosol, disodium hydrogen
phosphate, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, potassium dihy-
drogen phosphate, 2,20 -Azobis(2-amidinopropane)dihydrochloride
(AAPH), sodium fluorescein and caffeine were purchased from
Sigma-Aldrich (Switzerland). Potassium persulfate, hydrochloric
acid, sodium carbonate and Trolox were bought from Acros Organ-
ics (Geel, Belgium). Absolute ethanol was obtained from Alcosuisse
(Bern, Switzerland). ()Epicatechin, caftaric acid and scopoletin
were bought from Aktin Chemicals (China). 2,20 -azino-bis(3-
ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) was from Southern
Biotech (USA). Formic acid was obtained from Merck (Germany),
Acetonitrile from Macron (Macron Fine Chemicals, Poland). The
water was obtained with a Milli-Q system (Merck-Millipore,
Germany).
2.3. Aqueous extraction of coffee cherry pulp
Preliminary experiments (data not shown) indicated that the
particle size influenced the yield of bioactives extraction from cof-
fee cherry pulp. Therefore all dried coffee cherry pulp samples
were shred with a Moulinex ‘‘la moulinette xxl” (France). The par-
ticles were separated with a sieve w = 1.4 mm; d = 0.71 mm. Only
the particles < 1.4 mm were used for extraction.
The coffee cherry pulp samples (1.0 g) were extracted twice
with 10 mL of hot water for 15 min at 85 °C in a water bath. Water
extracts were centrifuged at 3 220 g for 7 min with an Eppendorf
Centrifuge 5810 (Germany). The supernatants were collected in a
25 mL volumetric flask. A third extraction was performed with
4 mL of hot water in the ultrasonic bath for 15 min followed by
centrifugation at 3 220 g for 10 min. The supernatant was filtered
into the flask and the volume was completed with water to
25 mL. Extracts were made in triplicate. For HPLC analysis, the
extracts were filtered with Exapure 0.45 lm nylon filters
(Switzerland).The Cascara beverage was analysed as such after fil-
tration with Exapure 0.45 lm nylon filter.
 A. Heeger et al. / Food Chemistry 221 (2017) 969–975 971

Fig. 1. Appearance of six dried coffee cherry pulp samples. For the characteristics see Table 1.

Table 1
Horszwald and Andlauer (2011) with some modifications. The lat-
Coffee cherry pulp sample characteristics. ter method is based on an electron transfer reaction during which
phenolic and nonphenolic substances are reduced; however the
Sample Variety Origin Type of process
obtained result is traditionally called total polyphenols content
1 Bourbon Salvador Wet (Huang, Ou, & Prior, 2005). Each extract was analysed in triplicate.
2 Caturra Honduras Wet
3 Mixed varieties Honduras Semi-dry
Absorbance and fluorescence measurements were performed using
4 Catuai Honduras Semi-dry a Tecan Infinite M200 pro microplate reader (Switzerland).
5 Bourbon Congo Wet Microplates with 96 wells were purchased from Nunc (Nunc A/S,
6 Maragogype Honduras Semi-dry Ruskilde, Denmark). Transparent microplates were used to deter-
mine the absorbance and black microplates for fluorescence
measurements.
2.4. Dry matter content

The dry matter (DM) of coffee cherry pulp samples was deter-
mined in duplicate with a halogen-balance (Mettler Toledo HG53
Moisture Analyzer, Switzerland). The mass loss at 110 °C was
determined gravimetrically. The results given in % of raw material
were used for the calculation of the results of individual analysis
per g of DM.
2.5. Antioxidant capacity assays
The antioxidant capacity was determined by the TEAC (Trolox
Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity) using ABTS method, the ORAC
(Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) method and total
polyphenols method with Folin-Ciocalteu reagent as described by
2.5.1. ABTS assay
A stock solution of ABTS radical was produced by dissolving
96 mg ABTS in about 20 mL of water, then adding 2.5 mL of potas-
sium persulfate solution (2.45 mmol/L) and finally filling to 25 mL
with water. The stock solution was left to rest overnight and stored
in the fridge. The stock solution was diluted in ethanol so that an
absorbance between 0.6 and 0.8 was obtained. The extracts and
Cascara beverage were diluted in ethanol. The wells of the micro-
plate were filled with 20 lL of the diluted sample. Then 290 lL
of ABTS solution were added with the injector. The absorbance at
755 nm was measured after 6 min of incubation at 30 °C. Trolox
solutions in ethanol in the concentration range of 5–200 mg/L were
used as standards. The results are indicated as lmol Trolox equiv-
alents per g dry matter (TE/g DM).
972 A. Heeger et al. / Food Chemistry 221 (2017) 969–975
2.5.2. ORAC assay
For the ORAC assay the extracts were diluted 1:50 or 1:100
with phosphate buffer (pH 7.4, 0.02 mmol/L) containing KCl
(0.001 mmol/L) and NaCl (0.07 mmol/L). The microplate wells
were filled with 50 lL of diluted extracts and Cascara sample and
50 lL of 300 nmol/L fluorescein solution and 100 lL of 50 mmol/L
AAPH solution were added using the injectors of the microplate
reader. The microplate reader was kept at 37 °C. During 2 h the flu-
orescence was measured every 2 min at excitation wavelength of
485 nm and emission wavelength of 520 nm. As standards Trolox
solutions in the concentration of 1–100 mg/L in phosphate buffer
were used. Again results are indicated as lmol TE/g DM.
2.5.3. Total polyphenols content
The extracts were analysed according to the method with
Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. 25 lL of the extract or Cascara sample
was pipetted into wells of the microplate. To each well 250 lL of
diluted Folin-Ciocalteu reagent (2 + 30 with water) was automati-
cally added with the injector. After 10 min of incubation at room
temperature, 25 lL of sodium carbonate solution (5% in water)
was added to the wells. The plate was incubated for 20 min and
absorbance was measured at 755 nm. As standards, solutions of
gallic acid in water in the range of concentration from 50 mg/L to
500 mg/L were prepared. The results are indicated as gallic acid
equivalent per g DM (mg GAE/g DM) of the coffee pulp sample.
The result of the Cascara is given as mg gallic acid equivalent per
litre (mg GAE/L).
2.6. HPLC-DAD analysis of caffeine and phenolic compounds content
Samples were analysed by HPLC for the profile of polyphenols
and the caffeine content. For this analysis an Agilent 1220 Infinity
series liquid chromatograph (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA,
USA) with a 100  2.1 mm KinetexÒ 2.6 lm EVO C18 100Å column
was used (Phenomenex, Torrance, CA, USA). The elution was
conducted with a gradient of water with 1% aqueous formic acid
(eluent A) and acetonitrile with 1% formic acid (eluent B). The sep-
aration started with 100% A for 2 min, 2–25 min B was increasing
to 10%, 25–26 min B was kept at 10%, 26–30 min B 10–60%, B
was kept for 5 min at 60%. From 35 min A was set back to 100%.
The detection was performed with a diode array detector at
260 nm, 280 nm, 320 nm and 340 nm. Undiluted extracts (three
from each sample) and the Cascara (three samples) were filtered
and 1 lL was injected onto the column. The individual polyphenols
and caffeine were identified by comparison of their retention times
and UV-spectra with those of the standards. The quantification was
made via external calibration. The following substances were used
as standards: caftaric acid, cafeic acid, chlorogenic acid, p-coumaric
acid, ferulic acid, sinapic acid, gallic acid, protocatechuic acid,
p-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, gentisic acid, scopoletin, rutin,
quercetin, tyrosol, (+)-catechin, caffeine, syringic acid and
(-)-epicatechin. Standards of p-hydroxybenzoic acid, tyrosol and
sinapic acid were prepared in ethanol, all other standards in
water.
2.7. Statistical analysis
The results are presented as mean ± standard deviation for
three individual extractions from each sample of coffee cherry pulp
and for three individual bottles for beverage. The significance of
difference was analysed using a one way ANOVA and a post hoc
Tukey-Kramer test (Granato, de Araújo Calado, & Jarvis, 2014).
The differences were considered significant at p < 0.05.
3. Results and discussion
The dry matter (DM) content of all coffee cherry pulp samples
was determined in order to report the results on DM basis. The
results obtained were quite similar for all samples ranging
between 90% and 93% of DM.
3.1. Antioxidant activity of coffee cherry pulp samples
The extraction of coffee cherry pulp was conducted in hot water
in order to simulate the condition of Cascara beverage production.
The results of antioxidant capacity obtained in different methods
are reported in Fig. 2. The highest total polyphenols content
amounting to 9.17 mg GAE/g DM was observed for bourbon variety
originating from Congo. Other samples showed values between
4.85 mg GAE/g DM and 6.08 mg GAE/g DM. All measured values
were lower than literature values for coffee cherry pulp ranging
between 11 and 20 mg/g for a 70% methanol/water extract (Ulloa
Rojas et al., 2003) and 122 g/kg for acidified aqueous methanol
(Arellano-González, Ramírez-Coronel, Torres-Mancera, & Pérez-
Morales, 2011). The explanation for these different extraction
yields is obvious: water/methanol and water/ethanol mixtures
have been shown to give higher extraction yields than water for
different agricultural residues (Vijayalaxmi, Jayalakshmi, &
Sreeramulu, 2015). Zakaria (2013) compared one coffee cherry
pulp sample prepared as a methanol/water (60:40) extract with
an aqueous infusion. A methanol/water extract contained
27.61 mg GAE/g and the water extract of the same sample showed
22.75 mg GAE/g (Zakaria, 2013). The extraction with a methanol/
water mixture seems to be more effective than with hot water.
For the ABTS test again coffee cherry pulp of bourbon variety
originating from Congo showed the highest antioxidant capacity
with 92.2 lmol TE/g DM (Fig. 2). Coffee cherry pulp of bourbon
variety originating from Honduras and of varietal mix from
Honduras showed similar values amounting to 67.4 and 64.9 lmol
TE/g DM, respectively. The other samples ranged between 51 and
54 lmol TE/g DM. As expected, there is a good correlation between
total polyphenol content and ABTS values (R2 = 0.95).
Also in the case of the ORAC assay there are the highest values
of the antioxidant capacity for the coffee cherry pulp of bourbon
variety originating from Congo and for sample of varietal mix from
Honduras with 274 lmol TE/g DM and 233 lmol TE/g DM, respec-
tively. The lowest antioxidant capacities were found for cattura,
catuai and maragogype varieties originating from Honduras with
values between 136 and 153 lmol TE/g DM.
300 30
a
250 a 25
antioxidant capacity [µmol TE/g DM]
total polyphenols [mg GAE/g DM]
200 b 20
c
150
c c
15
100 a a 10
b b b
b,c c c
c c c c
50 5
0 0
bourbon S. caturra H. mixed H. catuai H. bourbon C. maragogype H.
Fig. 2. Antioxidant capacity of six samples of dried coffee cherry pulp evaluated by
ABTS , ORAC h and total polyphenols assays. Results are expressed as
mean ± SD, n = 3. Different letters above the bars of the same colour denote
significant difference between the samples at p < 0.05. S. – Salvador, H. – Honduras,
C.- Congo.

Coffee cherry pulp of bourbon variety (Coffea arabica var.
bourbon) processed with wet method was obtained from planta-
tion in Salvador and Congo. The significantly higher results of
antioxidant capacity were noticed for the sample from Congo.
3.2. Content of polyphenols and caffeine in coffee cherry pulp samples
Individual polyphenols and caffeine were determined by HPLC.
The most prominent compounds identified in the extracts
are shown in Fig. 3. Chlorogenic acid and protocatechuic acid
are the dominant polyphenols in all analysed samples. In total,
these compounds made up more than 80% of the determined
polyphenols. Gallic acid and rutin were present in all coffee cherry
pulp samples as well, yet in much lower quantities (6 0.1 mg/g DM).
The exception was coffee cherry pulp of bourbon variety originat-
ing from Congo which contained 0.73 mg/g DM of gallic acid.
Again this sample showed the highest values for chlorogenic acid,
gallic acid and protocatechuic acid content and for the sum of
determined polyphenols. The sum of individual polyphenols
determined by HPLC correlated well with total polyphenol
content determined by total polyphenols method (R2 = 0.97). The
presence of chlorogenic acid (42.2%), protocatechuic acid (1.6%)
and rutin (2.1%) has already been reported by Ramirez-Martinez
in fresh coffee pulp extracted with 80% methanol (Ramirez-
Martinez, 1988). The presence of catechin (2.2%), epicatechin
(21.6%) and ferulic acid (1.0%) was reported there as well;
however those substances could not be detected in this study. It
is possible that epicatechin was degraded during processing and
storage. Presumably, there were also differences in the extraction
efficiency.
Similarly as for the results of antioxidant capacity two samples
of coffee cherry pulp of bourbon variety, both obtained with the
wet process but from different plantation countries differ
significantly in the content of individual phenolic compounds. This
indicates that either there were differences within the execution of
the wet process (e.g. de-pulping) or other factors like growing con-
ditions (altitude, climate, soil and agricultural practices) or harvest
time influenced the polyphenols content (Cheng, Furtado, Smyth, &
Henry, 2016). For example, it was reported that coffee beans grown
at higher altitude had higher content of chlorogenic acid and
caffeine, whereas rainfall had no significance for chlorogenic acid
content (Cheng et al., 2016).
8.0
7.0
6.0 b
5.0
content [mg/g DM]
4.0
3.0
2.0
c a
1.0
c e b c
0.03 0.05 0.02 e
0.0
bourbon S. caturra H.
Fig. 3. Content of individual polyphenols (gallic acid &, protocatechuic acid , chlorogenic acid , rutin ) and caffeine h of six samples of dried coffee cherry pulp
determined by HPLC. Results are expressed as mean ± SD, n = 3, different letters above the bars of the same colour denote significant difference in the content of individual
compound between the samples at p < 0.05. Due to the very low bars representing gallic acid and rutin content the values were given.
A. Heeger et al. / Food Chemistry 221 (2017) 969–975 973
The caffeine contents of the six coffee cherry pulp samples var-
ied between 3.4 and 6.8 mg/g DM. Bourbon variety from Congo and
maragogype variety showed highest caffeine contents with 6.5 and
6.8 mg/g DM whereas varietal mix from Honduras had the lowest
content. The caffeine values recorded in this work are within the
same range or lower than caffeine contents found in literature that
vary between 5.4 and 18 mg/g. However, literature values were
obtained with different extraction methods (Clifford & Ramirez-
Martinez, 1991; Ulloa Rojas et al., 2003).
The sample used for the coffee cherry tea production (varietal
mix from Honduras) showed second highest values for total
polyphenols content and ORAC value. Yet it possessed the lowest
caffeine content of all investigated samples.
3.3. Bioactive content and antioxidant activity of Cascara
Table 2 shows the content of caffeine and individual phenolic
compounds in Cascara beverage and its antioxidant activity. The
Cascara contained 226 mg of caffeine/L of beverage. Most
commonly consumed caffeine containing beverages are coffee
and tea. The difficulty in comparison of the obtained results with
those reported for tea and coffee lies in the different brewing pro-
cedures which have strong effect on bioactive compounds content.
Nevertheless, the ranges of bioactive contents reported for coffee
(espresso, filter, instant, Turkish and Italian), silverskin tea, ready
to drink green tea beverage and buckwheat hull infusion were
compiled in the Table 2. Cascara contained more caffeine than sil-
verskin drink, but most types of coffee are richer in this compound.
The caffeine content of Cascara was similar to the average value
reported for black tea by Barone and Roberts (1996). Protocate-
chuic and chlorogenic acid were the dominant phenolic com-
pounds identified in Cascara, amounting to 85.0 and 69.6 mg/L,
respectively. Also small amounts of gallic acid and rutin were
noted. Chlorogenic acids are dominant phenolic compounds of cof-
fee brews. Again their content depends strongly on the brewing
method and it might range from 150 to 3260 mg/L (Komes &
Belščak-Cvitanović, 2014). Comparing with silverskin tea Cascara
was richer in chlorogenic acid.
The Cascara beverage had also considerable antioxidant capac-
ity amounting to 3.02 and 8.86 mmol TE/L for ABTS and ORAC
assay respectively. The antioxidant capacity of the beverage might
be a result of activity of compound coming from coffee cherry pulp
a
a
c c
d
a
a
b
b
c
d d
0.73 a
b a c b c b
b
0.06 0.07 0.10 0.02 d 0.06 0.09 0.02 d 0.05
mixed H. catuai H. bourbon C. maragogype H.
974 A. Heeger et al. / Food Chemistry 221 (2017) 969–975

Table 2
Contents of caffeine, individual polyphenols and antioxidant activity of Cascara beverage in comparison to some literature data.

Cascara Coffeea Silverskin teab Green tea ready-to-drinkc Buckwheat hull infusiond
Caffeine content (mg/L) 226.4 ± 1.2 174–5400 50–190 n.r. n.r.
Phenolic compounds content (mg/L)
Gallic acid 4.3 ± 0.5 n.r. n.r. n.r. n.r.
Protocatechuic acid 85.0 ± 0.5 n.r. n.r. n.r. n.r.
Chlorogenic acid 69.6 ± 0.4 150–3260 20–30 n.r. 0.6
Rutin 6.1 ± 0.0 n.r. n.r. n.r. n.r.
Catechins n.r. n.r. 300–1000 n.r.
Antioxidant activity
ORAC (mmol TE/L) 8.86 ± 0.186 n.r. n.r. 6–22 n.r.
ABTS (mmol TE/L) 3.02 ± 0.006 6.97–54.1 n.r. n.r. n.r.
TPC (mg of GAE/L) 283 ± 12.0 250–18000 159–354e 450–1700 32f

Results of Cascara are expressed as means ± standard deviation of triplicate analysis; TE – Trolox equivalents, TPC – total phenolic content, GAE – gallic acid equivalents.
n.r. not reported in the cited study.
a
Ranges for brews prepared by different brewing techniques (Komes & Belščak-Cvitanović, 2014).
b
Ranges for beverages based on Arabica and Robusta silverskin extract 2.5 g/L (Martinez-Saez et al., 2014).
c
Ranges for four ready-to-drink green tea beverages from Brazilian market (Kodama, de Gonçalves, Lajolo, & Genovese, 2010).
d
Infusion prepared from 2 g of buckwheat hull with 200 ml of water (Zielińska, Szawara-Nowak, & Zieliński, 2013).
e
Expressed as chlorogenic acid equivalents.
f
Expressed as catechin equivalents.

and scarcely from lemon juice used for its production. The calcula-
tions based on the literature data shows that 5.7 mL of lemon juice
used for the production of 1 L of Cascara could contribute up to
0.01 mmol TE/L to the final antioxidant capacity of the beverage
(Pellegrini et al., 2003). The values obtained for Cascara in this
study were definitely lower than those reported for coffee brews
but within the range for green tea ready to drink products
(Kodama, de Gonçalves, Lajolo, & Genovese, 2010; Komes &
Belščak-Cvitanović, 2014). The coffee cherry tea contained
283 mg GAE/L of total polyphenols. This is about a third of the
amount of total polyphenols which Saura-Calixto and Goñi
(2006) reported in a black tea (763 mg/L) and more than ten times
less than the amount for coffee (3430 mg/L). A beverage made from
coffee silverskin extract and buckwheat hull tea are other
beverages produced out of by-products. Buckwheat hull tea
contained a smaller amount of total polyphenols than Cascara with
about 32 mg catechin equivalents/L (Zielińska et al., 2013). The
beverage prepared from coffee silverskin extract showed the total
polyphenols content comparable to the Cascara with the values
of about 350 mg chlorogenic acid equivalent/L (eq. CGA/L) for
Robusta coffee and about 150 mg eq. CGA/L for Arabica coffee
(Martinez-Saez et al., 2014).
The content of phenolic compounds obtained for Cascara was
compared with the sample of varietal mix from Honduras out of
which the Cascara was produced. The recovery rate of extraction
performed carefully in the laboratory and that obtained during
the production process were similar for most of the compounds.
Namely, contents of caffeine, gallic acid, protocatechuic acid and
rutin were shown to be similar for the coffee cherry tea and for
the water extract at 85 °C with yields between 95 and 102%. This
indicates that those substances are stable during pasteurisation
and storage of the beverage. Surprisingly, the Cascara contained
much less chlorogenic acid than the calculated value (68%). Chloro-
genic acid was shown to partly form isomers and react with water
when heated under reflux as an aqueous solution (Dawidowicz &
Typek, 2010). Probably some of the losses of chlorogenic acid in
the beverage were due to heating during the pasteurisation
process.
of the taste of the potential beverage made of this type of coffee
cherry pulp remains to be evaluated.
The utilisation of well-defined coffee cherry pulp, obtained
under known conditions of processing but also cultivation might
help to develop a valuable and reproducible product. Definitely,
those parameters could affect the bioactive compounds in the
by-products. However, it should not be forgotten that coffee cherry
pulp is a by-product. The parameters of coffee cultivation or
processing will never be modified by the growers in order to
optimise the by-product quality. Finding possibility of coffee
cherry pulp utilisation may help to avoid its dumping which causes
environmental problems. At the same time the content of phenolic
compounds in pulp originating from different plantations will vary
which should be taken into account for the reproducible produc-
tion of the beverage.
The samples of coffee cherry pulp obtained from coffee produc-
ers from different parts of the world, differing in variety and type of
processing showed significantly different contents of phenolic
compounds and caffeine. Among the assessed samples, bourbon
variety originating from Congo had highest total polyphenol
content and antioxidant capacity and high caffeine content.
Conflict of interest
Ennio Cantergiani used to work for La Semeuse SA and devel-
oped the Cascara beverage. He did not participate in the study
design or analytical part of the study. All other authors have no
conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
We thank La Semeuse SA for the providing of the dried coffee
cherry pulp samples and the Cascara. The technical assistance of
Isabelle Héritier is highly appreciated. The study was partly funded
by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western
Switzerland thematic research program HealthFood.
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