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Bio-Recycling Hazelnut Shells to Improve Antioxidant Properties of Lentinus tigrinus Sporophore

Publication . Desiderio, Anthea; Pedrosa, Mariana C.; Heleno, Sandrina A.; Carocho, Márcio; Rodrigues, Daniele Bobrowski; Buratti, Simone; Soffientini, Irene; Ratto, Daniela; Savino, Elena; Rossi, Paola

Lentinus tigrinus is a wood-decay fungus known for its nutritional, culinary, and medicinal benefits. It contains bioactive compounds like polyphenols, terpenes, and flavonoids that exhibit antioxidant, anti-microbial, and anti-inflammatory effects. These natural antioxidants are increasingly recognized for their potential to prevent oxidative damage linked to aging and chronic diseases. This study investigates the antioxidant activity of hydroalcoholic extracts obtained from L. tigrinus sporophores cultivated on hazelnut shells (Lt1_HS), a waste material rich in phenolic compounds, and sporophores cultivated on sawdust (Lt1_S). Bioactivity tests, including DPPH, TBARS, MTT, and DCFHDA assays, were performed to assess the hydroalcoholic extracts’ efficiency. The results showed that all the extracts contained various bioactive compounds, primarily polyphenols. Notably, the caffeoylquinic acids present in HS and Lt1_HS are linked to anti-peroxidant effects. Biological analyses demonstrated that the Lt1_HS extract has higher anti-peroxidant activity (IC50 0.77 ± 0.01 mg/mL) compared to Lt1_S (IC50 1.36 ± 0.01 mg/mL) and reduces the accumulation of reactive oxygen species in HaCaT cells by 80%. However, the specific bioactive compounds responsible for these antioxidant effects are still unclear, and further analysis will be conducted. Additionally, this study promotes recycling hazelnut shells as a valuable substrate for fungal cultivation, supporting sustainable waste management.

2025Journal article

Open access

Optimization of citric acid extraction from lime peels using response surface methodology

Publication . Fernandes, Filipa Alexandra; Heleno, Sandrina A.; Pinela, José; Carocho, Márcio; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.; Ferreira, Isabel C.F.R.; Barros, Lillian

Citrus fruits, like lime, belong to the most consumed group of fruits worldwide, generating a large amount of industrial waste, such as peels, pomace and seeds. Most of this waste is deposited in landfills leading to a negative environmental impact. Several scientific works demonstrate that this biowaste is rich in valuable molecules, such as organic acids (e.g. citric acid) with scientifically proven bioactive properties

2022Conference poster

Open access

Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in the dairy sector: perspectives on the use of agro-industrial side-streams to design functional foods

Publication . Granato, Daniel; Carocho, Márcio; Barros, Lillian; Zabetakis, Ioannis; Mocan, Andrei; Tsoupras, Alexandros; Cruz, Adriano Gomes; Pimentel, Tatiana Colombo

From 2017 to 2020, global milk production ranged from 610,724 to 643,769 thousand tons, but the dairy industry still faces issues related to its carbon footprint and sustainability. According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), by 2030, food processors, governmental bodies, and consumers should take actions regarding food production patterns and consumption to decrease the generation of by-products and side-streams and increase their circularity by developing nutritious-rich products. Dairy products have traditionally been manufactured without bioactive ingredients to boost consumers’ health and well-being. To achieve the sustainability goals and the need to reformulate traditional dairy foods to make them more nutritious and reduce their carbon footprint, it is paramount to implement integrated approaches that embody the “farm to fork” ethos. Scope and approach: This review integrates concepts of food science, technology, nutrition, circular economy, and sustainability to provide an overview of the technological applications of dietary fibre, polyphenols, functional lipids, and carotenoids obtained from agro-industrial side-streams in dairy food formulations. Key findings and conclusions: Dairy processors can use bioactive ingredients and extracts obtained from agroindustrial side-streams to design potentially functional food models and tentatively market these products with nutritional claims or even with a health claim in case the bioactivity is verified in human intervention trials. This approach will increase the nutritional value of traditional dairy foods and contribute to circularity within food systems, reducing food waste, and enhancing human health.

2022Journal article

Open access

Optimization through response surface methodology of dynamic maceration of olive (Olea europaea L.) leaves

Publication . Pedrosa, Mariana C.; Lima, Laíres; Heleno, Sandrina A.; Carocho, Márcio; Ferreira, Isabel C.F.R.; Barros, Lillian

Bioactive compounds derived from plants are secondary metabolites that can act through various bioactivities, namely as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-hypertensive, and hypoglycemic agents. Combined with the pressure generated by consumers for more natural products with beneficial effects on health, these compounds may be suitable candidates to act as preservatives in food products. For this purpose, the extraction process becomes essential for the acquisition of a quality extract with efficiency and with the desired final properties. Therefore, the main objective of this work was to perform the optimization of the extraction yield of olive leaves (Olea europaea L.), by applying response surface methodology (RSM) and employing dynamic maceration as extraction technique. Three factors were analyzed: time (F1), temperature (F2), and solvent (F3), ranging from 5 to 120 min, 25 to 100 C, and from 0 to 100% ethanol, respectively. The study used the Box Behnken design, relying on 17 individual randomized runs. The response was the dry weight of the extract (Y1), which ranged from 21.1 to 90.5 mg. The optimization studies pointed to the increase of yield with the increase of time and temperature, but inversely by applying higher time and lower temperature values and higher temperature and lower time values. The highest yield of the dry extract was achieved at 120 min (F1), 25 C (F2), and 87% (F3) of ethanol:water. Future studies will be carried out to analyze the preservative effects of incorporating olive extract in foods, as well as analysis of other response for optimizing the best food preserving extract.

2022Conference paper

Open access

Phenolic Profile and Antioxidant and Biological Activities of Plant Extracts Rich in Hydrolyzable Tannins

Publication . Melo, Adma N.F.; Afonso, Tiago B.; Pedrosa, Mariana C.; Carvalho, Marta; Rodrigues, Cláudia; Dias, Maria Inês; Ribeiro, Tânia; Machado, Manuela; Tavaria, Freni K.; Carocho, Márcio; Simas, João P.; Teixeira, Paula; Barros, Lillian; Pintado, Manuela

In this work, hydroethanolic plant extracts (acorn husk, laurel, eucalyptus, and rockrose leaves) were screened for their content in condensed tannins (HPLC-DAD/MS), polyphenol content, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antiviral activities, and lack of toxicity. The results showed the highest values of condensed tannins found for laurel and eucalyptus extracts, while the total phenolic content ranged within 204.54 ± 2.0/326 ± 7.0 (mg GAE/g extract), with the acorn husk extract presenting the highest content (p < 0.05). The extracts showed good antioxidant activity, which varied with the type of assay. ABTS (1013 ± 5.0/1859 ± 6.0) with the rockrose Porto extract presented the highest content, DPPH (854 ± 6.0/1565 ± 4.0) with the acorn husk extract presented the highest content, and ORAC (2855 ± 10/3703 ± 87) with the laurel extract presented the highest content; all results were expressed in μmol Trolox/g extract. The most antimicrobial extracts were the rockrose and acorn husk. In terms of virus inhibition, all extracts showed an inhibition over 90%, although eucalyptus and the acorn husk reached an inhibition close to 99%. No mutagenicity by AMES assays and no cytotoxicity were detected for the extracts. This work highlights the potential of these plant extracts representing the source of bioactive components with antioxidant capacity to be applied in foods, food packaging, development of new natural cleaning agents, and/or other applications.

2024Journal article

Restricted access