Yacon root is known for its antioxidant, prebiotic and insulin modulator benefits. However, like the root, yacon juice exhibits rapid enzymatic browning, requiring treatments such as acidification. Lactobionic acid (LBA) is a promising food ingredient, which contains not only preservative but also nutritional properties. The first goal of this study was to evaluate the influence of combined treatments (blanching, acid pretreatment) and LBA on refrigerated yacon juice (8 °C; 48 h). The analysis of pH, antioxidants, total polyphenols and color, were used to select the optimal combined conditions, which were steam blanching (10 min) + LBA 1%. Secondly, the LBA was compared with citric, malic, tartaric, and ascorbic acids (at 1% levels), where the kinetics of polyphenol oxidases were determined in refrigerated storage of the juice at 8 °C for 48 h. Results showed that LBA, malic and tartaric acids maintained the color of yacon juice and preserved bioactive compounds. LBA and malic acid prevented enzymatic browning with PPO reductions of 80.4% and 79.4%, respectively. This was the first time that LBA has been tested in a refrigerated juice showing significant potential for preservation of color and bioactive compounds in food products.

Yacon根因其抗氧化剂，益生元和胰岛素调节剂的功效而闻名。然而，雅根汁像根一样，表现出快速的酶促褐变，需要进行酸化等处理。乳酸乳酸（LBA）是一种很有前途的食品成分，不仅包含防腐剂，而且还具有营养特性。这项研究的第一个目标是评估联合处理（分枝，酸预处理）和LBA对冷藏Yacon果汁（8°C； 48 h）的影响。通过pH值，抗氧化剂，总多酚和颜色的分析来选择最佳组合条件，即蒸汽热烫（10分钟）+ 1％LBA。其次，将LBA与柠檬酸，苹果酸，酒石酸和抗坏血酸（1％的水平）进行了比较，在果汁中于8°C冷藏48 h时测定了多酚氧化酶的动力学。结果表明，LBA，苹果酸和酒石酸保持了Yacon汁的颜色并保留了生物活性化合物。LBA和苹果酸可防止酶促褐变，PPO分别降低80.4％和79.4％。这是LBA首次在冷藏果汁中进行测试，显示出在食品中保留颜色和生物活性化合物的巨大潜力。