Fructose production by Cynara cardunculus inulin hydrolysis

Fructose is a ketohexose, known as D-fructose or levulose and is considered the sweetest sugar found in nature. Currently, this sugar is mostly produced through the acid hydrolysis of sucrose, or through the multi-enzymatic hydrolysis of starch. In response to the growing demand for the consumption of natural, healthy and low-calorie food since the early 1980s, fructose is considered a viable alternative to sucrose. In order to reduce time, complexity and costs involved in this process, production of fructose from fructans such as inulin, have been studied as alternatives to the current approaches. One of the potential inulin crops available for fructose productions is Cynara cardunculus L. The present work aims to estimate the yield of inulin in different genotypes of Cynara for the production of fructose by low cost hydrolysis processes. As source of inulin were evaluated the roots in annual crop and flower heads in multi-year crop. Inulin was extracted in water and hydrolyzed to produce fructose. With a production of more than 4.5 t of fructose ha^-1, the results showed the excellent potential of the cardoon for the production of fructose by inulin.