The present study investigated the emulsifying and structural properties of pectin enzymatically
extracted from pumpkin. Pumpkin pectin fraction A was obtained from raw pumpkin with an enzymatic
preparation of cellulase and a-amylase. Pumpkin pectin fraction B was achieved by treating the fraction A
solution with pronase to reduce protein content. According to the findings (on protein content, galacturonic
acid content, neutral sugar composition, and molecular weight distribution), the pronase
treatment could remove protein from the fraction A without considerably influencing any other chemical
and molecular properties. Moreover, the fraction A exhibited emulsifying properties in water and oil
mixture, whereas the removal of protein in the fraction B resulted in the loss of emulsifying properties.
The FT-IR and 1D NMR analysis revealed that the backbone of pumpkin pectin is mainly composed of a-
1,4-D-galacturonic acid in which a considerable portion of galacturonic acid residues is present as methyl
esters, and some L-rhamnose are involved in the linear region of the backbone through a-1,2-linkages.