The recovery of bioactive phytochemicals from agri-food by-products is an interesting valorization strategy that contributes to the circular economy and the sustainability of the food system [1]. In this context, innovative methodologies of low environmental impact, based on pressurized fluids (e.g. PLE, SFE or even SAF) and making use of generally recognized as safe solvents (GRAS), were proposed by our research group for the selective extraction of these natural bioactives. These processes aim to obtain cocktails of compounds such as phenolics, carotenoids, terpenoids and vitamins with enormous nutraceutical potential [2].
Based on the hypothesis that links dietary phytochemicals, such as terpene compounds and polyphenols, with the development of neurodegenerative pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), one of the main aims of our research is to demonstrate the potential of these phytochemicals as neuroprotective agents. Taking into account the multifactorial nature of neurodegenerative pathologies, a complete methodology of invitro assays was developed to test the anticholinergic potential, antioxidant capacity and anti-inflammatory activity of a wide variety of by-products from the agri-food industry; mainly, orange bagasse, seeds and skin of tropical fruits, olive leaves; as well as saffron by-products from the nutraceutical industry.
To uncover the complex relationship between the chemical composition and the observed bioactivity of the natural products, bioguided extraction procedures followed by untargeted LC/GC-HRMS/MS data-mining strategies were successfully implemented to characterize bioactive secondary metabolites from the abovementioned underused biomasses (e.g., procyanidins, terpenoids, crocins, polyphenols, carotenoids and PUFAs). These natural matrices were shown as promising sources of health promoting compounds with demonstrated antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or anti-cholinergic properties under in-vitro bioactivity testing [3,4].
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by grants PID2020-113050RB-I00,
PDC2021-120814-I00 and EQC2021-007112-P (MCINN/AEI). J.D.S-M. would like
acknowledge the Ministry of Education for a FPU predoctoral grant FPU17/01876. G.A.-
R. would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) for his
“Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación” postdoctoral grant IJC2019-041482-I.
Literature:
[1] B. Socas-Rodríguez, Trends Food Sci. Technol. 2021, 114, 133.
[2] P. Mohammadnezhad, Curr. Opin. Food Sci. 2023, 52, 101065.
[3] J. D. Sánchez-Martínez, Food Chem. X 2022, 13, 100242.
[4] Z. J. Suárez Montenegro, Foods 2021, 10, 1507.
