Cellulose acetate as a selective sorbent for limonin in orange juice

Cellulose acetate as flake or powder is an efficient and selective sorbent for removing the bitter principle limonin from orange juice. Treatment of orange juice serum with powder (10 g/litre) removed 44–70% of the limonin content in less than an hour, at the same time removing relatively negligible amounts of hesperidin and ascorbic acid. Similar amounts of limonin could be removed by agitating the whole juice with cellulose acetate flakes held in open mesh bags which allowed contact between the enclosed flakes and the juice. Other materials, including related carbohydrate derivatives and polymers, were tested but only cellulose acetate butyrate shared the unusual sorptive properties of cellulose acetate.