Green economy is a sustainable tool for the development and valorisation of natural, social, and economic resources. It is recognized as a tool to produce goods and services, as well as for the sustainable conservation and use of natural resources. The FINNOVER project (“Innovative strategies for the development of cross-border green supply chains”) proposes a technical-economic path for the creation, development, and valorization of new supply chains for the eco-sustainable extraction and use of natural health-promoting compounds. In this study, an innovative “green” extraction strategy to produce healthy value-added products derived from herbal preparation by-products was developed as an alternative to traditional waste incineration or composting. Castanea spp. has been selected as a case study because it was widely used for hundreds of years as medicinal plants in composite formulae, but this approach could be analogously applied for other herbal extracts. Bioactive compounds (botanicals) are quite variable in the raw material, based on genotype (intraspecific chemodiversity), different collection stages, pedoclimatic conditions of sampling sites (wild or cultivation zones), agrotechniques, and post-harvest handling. This research aimed to compare the pattern of health-promoting agents in Castanea spp. bud-derivatives (herbal preparations derived from meristematic fresh plant tissues as buds and sprouts) with the composition of extracts derived from the bud-waste management process. Molecules were extracted by the encoded traditional method (maceration in hydroglyceroalcoholic solution) and by innovative sustainable extraction technologies (pulsed ultrasound-assisted extraction). HPLC methods were used to characterize the main bioactive compounds, and to obtain a specific profile to assess the contribution of each botanical class to the total phytocomplex. About the 13% of the C. sativa bud-derivative phytochemical content was preserved in the marc extracts and it could be recovered for further products. Cinnamic acids, vitamin C, and flavonols resulted as the most preserved classes of compounds in the marc extract after PUAE application. These results are very important because of the protective effects of polyphenols and vitamin C mainly ascribed to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacities. The established protocol was simple, sensitive, and reliable, and it may be used for the evaluation of natural products and eco-sustainable preparations. The valorization of bud marcs, derived from the bud-derivative production, could be a very important re-use strategy and show a significant economic impact for the commercial producers, representing an important innovation in this sector.
Green extractions and sustainable technologies in the Finnover project: health-promoting compounds from Castanea spp. bud-derivatives
Turrini, Federica;Boggia, Raffaella;Grilli, Massimo;Pittaluga, Anna;
2021-01-01
Abstract
Green economy is a sustainable tool for the development and valorisation of natural, social, and economic resources. It is recognized as a tool to produce goods and services, as well as for the sustainable conservation and use of natural resources. The FINNOVER project (“Innovative strategies for the development of cross-border green supply chains”) proposes a technical-economic path for the creation, development, and valorization of new supply chains for the eco-sustainable extraction and use of natural health-promoting compounds. In this study, an innovative “green” extraction strategy to produce healthy value-added products derived from herbal preparation by-products was developed as an alternative to traditional waste incineration or composting. Castanea spp. has been selected as a case study because it was widely used for hundreds of years as medicinal plants in composite formulae, but this approach could be analogously applied for other herbal extracts. Bioactive compounds (botanicals) are quite variable in the raw material, based on genotype (intraspecific chemodiversity), different collection stages, pedoclimatic conditions of sampling sites (wild or cultivation zones), agrotechniques, and post-harvest handling. This research aimed to compare the pattern of health-promoting agents in Castanea spp. bud-derivatives (herbal preparations derived from meristematic fresh plant tissues as buds and sprouts) with the composition of extracts derived from the bud-waste management process. Molecules were extracted by the encoded traditional method (maceration in hydroglyceroalcoholic solution) and by innovative sustainable extraction technologies (pulsed ultrasound-assisted extraction). HPLC methods were used to characterize the main bioactive compounds, and to obtain a specific profile to assess the contribution of each botanical class to the total phytocomplex. About the 13% of the C. sativa bud-derivative phytochemical content was preserved in the marc extracts and it could be recovered for further products. Cinnamic acids, vitamin C, and flavonols resulted as the most preserved classes of compounds in the marc extract after PUAE application. These results are very important because of the protective effects of polyphenols and vitamin C mainly ascribed to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacities. The established protocol was simple, sensitive, and reliable, and it may be used for the evaluation of natural products and eco-sustainable preparations. The valorization of bud marcs, derived from the bud-derivative production, could be a very important re-use strategy and show a significant economic impact for the commercial producers, representing an important innovation in this sector.
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