Abstract
Nowadays, the transformation activity of the food industry results in the generation of a huge amount of daily discarded vegetables wastes. One of those undervalued by-products are produced during the post-harvesting and processing process of artichokes. In the present research, the potential of artichokes’ bracts and stalks have been evaluated as a natural source of phenolic compounds which could be used as bioactive food ingredients, among others. In this study, the bioactive composition of those wastes has been evaluated using recent advances in extraction and analytical technologies, concretely, pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) followed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to electrospray time-of flight mass spectrometry (ESI-TOF/MS) analysis. To achieve this goal, first, the extraction process was evaluated by a comparative study using GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) solvents (mixtures of ethanol and water) at different temperatures (40–200 °C). The second step was to deeply characterize the composition of individual polyphenols by HPLC-ESI-TOF/MS in order to establish a comparison among the different PLE conditions applied to extract the phenolic fraction. The analysis revealed a wide variety of phenolic-composition, mainly phenolic acids and flavonoids. The results also highlighted that high percentages of ethanol and medium-high temperatures pointed out to be useful PLE conditions for recovering this kind of phytochemicals, which could be used in different applications, such as functional food ingredients, cosmetics, or nutraceuticals.
Highlights
Nowadays, consumption of fruit and vegetable is very widespread as they provide health benefits
Identification of Phytochemical Compounds of Artichoke By-Products by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-ESI-TOF-MS
Another study was based on the study of the chemical composition of artichoke by-products applying maceration with 80% methanol–water mixture able to obtain extracts enriched in polar compounds [18]
Summary
Consumption of fruit and vegetable is very widespread as they provide health benefits. These benefits are partly due to the phenolic compounds that products contain. Phenolic compounds are plant secondary metabolites, with a structure composed of an aromatic ring linked to one or more hydroxyl substitutes. They are synthesized in the normal plant growth and reproduction and, during stress conditions such as high temperatures, hydric stress, ultraviolet radiation, or parasites [1]. The first group includes phenolic acids (benzoic and cinnamic acids) and benzoquinones, while flavonoids, stilbenes, lignans, tannins, and other polymerized compounds are part of polyphenols group
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