engleski

High pressure extraction techniques - challenge and opportunity for by-products of plant origin

By-product utilization became one of the fastest growing areas of research, because it represents a cheap and nutritiously highly valuable raw material. Its usage in subsequent industrial processes enables more efficient waste management, and it is fully in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Also, the economic efficiency of a particular production process is increased, because along with the reduction of waste, added value is achieved by isolating bioactive components from a particular by-product which can then be used further in other industries (cosmetic, pharmacy, food industry, etc.). From the economic standpoint, large amounts of by- products are still not being used in the best possible way in the Republic of Croatia. Furthermore, there is no competition on the domestic market in the area of highly profitable final products that could be created from those initial raw materials, and they are some of the most highly sought after food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products in the world. Accordingly to that, the purpose of this research was to examine the impact of two innovative green high pressure extraction techniques (Supercritical CO2 Extraction, SC-CO2, and Subcritical Water Extraction, SWE) in the isolation of bioactive components from the selected by-products of plant origin: cocoa shell, tobacco industry waste and citrus peel. Citrus waste, especially the peel, is rich in essential oils but also in phenolic compounds such as hesperidin, neohesperidin, narirutin, naringin and tangeritin. The cocoa shell is a rich source of methylxanthines (theobromine, theophylline, caffeine), catechin, epicatechin and caffeic acid. Tobacco waste is rich in nicotine, as well as solanesol and phenolic compounds, especially rutin and chlorogenic acids. They are only some of the potentially valuable by-products that can be successfully used in the production of extracts rich in bioactive components. This paper will present one of the possibilities of using mentioned by-products for obtaining targeted active compounds. Firstly, SC-CO2 extraction can be applied to obtain nonpolar compounds and from reused by-products (after SC-CO2 extraction), SWE can be sequentially performed to obtain the extracts rich in phenolic compounds. Special emphasis will be put on the possible commercial valorisation of the research results and on the transfer of those results to the industrial level.

by-products ; high pressure extraction techniques ; bioactive compounds ; process optimization

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