Solanaceae crop by-products as renewable sources of bioactive phenolic extracts

The upcycling of agri-food by-products into high added-value products has been promoted in recent years. Solanaceae is one of the main plant families supplying important vegetable and staple food crops worldwide. Bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) and eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) are two good examples, and their agricultural production generates million tons of valueless crop remains (especially plant aerial parts) [1], whose insertion in the value chain needs to be promoted and investigated to ensure the efficient use and circularity of these natural resources. Moreover, while the fruits of these species are well characterized for their nutritional value [2], the residual biomass of these crops remain unexplored, and little is known about their composition in bioactive constituents. Therefore, this work aimed at characterizing the phenolic compounds of bell pepper and eggplant crop by-products and evaluating the bioactive activities in order to find possible industrial applications. The phenolic profiles of both plant materials were characterized in the hydroethanolic extracts by the HPLC-DAD/ESI-MSn technique [3]. The extracts were also used to evaluate in vitro antioxidant activity, with regard to their ability to inhibit lipid peroxidation and oxidative haemolysis [4], and antimicrobial effects against foodborne microorganisms, by serial microdilution methods [3]. The bell pepper by-product extract showed a qualitative predominance of flavonoids and a better performance in the lipid peroxidation and oxidative haemolysis inhibition assays, as well as greater antifungal activity. In turn, phenolic acids stood out as main compounds in the eggplant by-product extract, with presented higher activity against the tested bacterial strains. Overall, the obtained extracts seemed to be a promising material for application in the food and nutraceutical industries, among other sectors, given their high potential to be used as natural preservative ingredients

Palavras-chave

Bioactive phenolic extracts

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10198/25654

Citação

Añibarro-Ortega, Mikel; Petrović, Jovana; Dias, Maria Inês; Pereira, Alexis; Soković, Marina; Ferreira, Isabel C.F.R.; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Pinela, José; Barros, Lillian (2022). Solanaceae crop by-products as renewable sources of bioactive phenolic extracts. In 1st Research Meeting on Biochemistry. Maringá