EXPLOITATION OF AGROFOOD WASTES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF VALUE-ADDED COSMETIC INGREDIENTS

Nowadays, in a context of sustainability, a great industrial interest in the development of green processes and green bioactive compounds has significantly increased due to their wide spread in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. In the cosmetic field, “green", does not only mean “botanical”, but also a systematic approach to analyze, quantify, and then minimize the environmental/resource-depleting impact of any process and technology. Ingredients can’t be considered "greener" "or safer" simply if they are plant derived, but when all details of sourcing, manufacturing, disposal (including information concerning energy and water use, as well as eco- and human toxicity) have been taken into account. (the so-called product/ingredient life cycle) From an extractive point of view, the exploitation of renewable sources, especially plant wastes, are attracting greater and greater attention. The agro-alimentary sector produces a large amount of organic residues that often are both highly polluting and quite expensive to treat. Their conversion from worn out plant matrices with high environmental impact into recycled natural sources with significant added values represents a great “cosm-ethic” challenge, due to the industrial need of a “Responsible Care” of the environment together with a high quality of products and processes and a general attention to circular economy. Taking into account all of these statements, the aim of this research was the study and development of new eco-sustainable extractive procedures to obtain new “green” bioactive ingredients from organic waste, according to the Green Chemistry and Green Extraction targets. Thus the project included the recycle of agro-food by-products as substrates from renewable sources, the choice of microwave heating as an alternative energetic source and the use of green solvents, following the Green Chemistry and Green Extraction targets. Microwaves assisted extractions (MAE) were selected and applied because of their advantages over more conventional extraction techniques such as reduction of extraction times, solvent volumes and energy consumption, coupled to a better extraction efficiency as well as a high extract quality. Among green solvents, NADES (natural deep eutectic solvents) were identified as the most suitable ones to be coupled with microwave activation to achieve sustainable performing extractions. For this goal a dedicated multitasking microwave-mediated extractive prototype was designed, assembled and applied with several worn out plant matrices. The most significant results were related to grape marc (from wine-making process) pomegranate peel (from fruit juice industry), safflower petals (from saffron production) and rose petals (from rose syrup production). The biological potential of the peculiar extracts obtained was assessed in regards to their radical scavenging, antioxidant activity and total polyphenolic content; both as pure compounds and as functional ingredients after their incorporation in real cosmetic matrices.