Affiliation

Department of Biology and Biotechnology “L. Spallanzani”, University of Pavia, Italy

Corresponding Author

Enrico Doria, Department of Biology and Biotechnology “L. Spallanzani”, University of Pavia, Italy, Tel: 00390382986468; E-mail: enrico.doria@unipv.it

Citation

Zhang et al. Extraction and Evaluation of Nutraceutical Molecules in Wastes of Fruit and Vegetables. (2017) J Food Nutr Sci 4(2): 74- 80.

Copy rights

© 2017 Doria, E. This is an Open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

  Fruit and vegetables wastes not only have no commercial value, but also require expensive operations of removal and disposal, representing a significant cost for the manufacturers of plant products. However, this material may represent an important resource of commercially worth phyto-molecules endowed with various nutraceutical properties. In the present work, we have verified the possibility of using fruit and vegetable waste materials as a source of bioactive compounds. Several nutraceutical compounds of high economic interest were extracted and quantified from various waste plant materials deriving from the production phase (“first-gamma products”) or discarded during the preparation of fresh ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat packaged products (“fourth-gamma products”). Obtained results showed that, despite the precarious and uncontrolled conditions which plant wastes products are subjected, the levels of the examined bioactive compounds are present in relevant amount, also in the parts of the plant that are discarded during the preparation of the ready-to-eat/cook products.