Valorization of Almond (Prunus serotina) by Obtaining Bioactive Compounds

Food Wastes and Microalgae as Sources of Bioactive Compounds and Pigments in a Modern Biorefinery: A Review

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has created more pressure on countries and society at large for the development of alternative solutions for synthetic and fossil fuel derived products, thus mitigating climate change and environmental hazards. Food wastes and microalgae have been studied for decades as potential sources of several compounds that could be employed in various fields of application from pharmaceutical to textile and packaging. Although multiple research efforts have been put towards extracting rich compounds (i.e., phenolic compounds, tocopherols, and tocotrienols) from these sources, they still remain overlooked as two major sources of bioactive compounds and pigments, mainly due to inefficient extraction processes. Hence, there is a growing need for the development of optimized extraction methods while employing non-organic solvent options following the main principles of green chemistry. This review will focus on delivering a clear and deep analysis on the existing procedures for obtaining bioactive compounds and pigments from food wastes derived from the most consumed and produced fruit crops in the world such as apples, oranges, cherries, almonds, and mangoes, and microalgal biomass, while giving light to the existing drawbacks in need to be solved in order to take full advantage of the rich properties present in these two major biorefinery sources.

LC-Q-Orbitrap-MS/MS Characterization, Antioxidant Activity, and α-Glucosidase-Inhibiting Activity With In Silico Analysis of Extract From Clausena Indica (Datz.) Oliv Fruit Pericarps

Clausena indica (Datz.) Oliv fruit pericarps (CIOPs) is an important agro-industrial by-product rich in active components. In this article, the effects of traditional and green deep eutectic solvents (DESs) on the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) characterization, antioxidant activities, and α-glucosidase-inhibitory activity of phenolic extracts from CIOPs were investigated for the first time. The results showed that ChCl-Gly and Bet-CA had higher extraction efficiency for the total phenolic content (TPC, 64.14-64.83 mg GAE/g DW) and total flavonoid content (TFC, 47.83-48.11 mg RE/g DW) compared with the traditional solvents (water, methanol, and ethyl acetate). LC-Q-Orbitrap-MS/MS was adopted to identify the phenolic compositions of the CIOPs extracts. HPLC-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) results indicated that arbutin, (-)-epigallocatechin, chlorogenic acid, procyanidin B1, (+)-catechin, and (-)-epicatechin were the major components for all extracts, especially for deep eutectic solvents (DESs). In addition, ChCl-Xyl and ChCl-Gly extracts showed higher antioxidant activities against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH^•), 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS^+•), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), reducing power (RP), and cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC) than extracts extracted by other solvents. A strong α-glucosidase-inhibiting activity (IC₅₀, 156.25-291.11 μg/ml) was found in three DESs extracts. Furthermore, in silico analysis of the major phenolics in the CIOPs extracts was carried out to explore their interactions with α-glucosidase. Multivariate analysis was carried out to determine the key factors affecting the antioxidant activity and α-glucosidase-inhibiting activity. In short, DES can be taken as a promising solvent for valorization and recovery of bioactive compounds from agro-industrial by-products. The results verified that CIOPs can be used as a prospective source rich in bio-active compounds applied in the food and pharmacy industries.