Abstract
Natural phenolic compounds are important classes of plant, microorganism, and algal secondary metabolites. They have well-documented beneficial biological activities. The marine environment is less explored than other environments but have huge potential for the discovery of new unique compounds with potential applications in, e.g., food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. To survive in a very harsh and challenging environment, marine organisms like several seaweed (macroalgae) species produce and accumulate several secondary metabolites, including marine phenolics in the cells. Traditionally, these compounds were extracted from their sample matrix using organic solvents. This conventional extraction method had several drawbacks such as a long extraction time, low extraction yield, co-extraction of other compounds, and usage of a huge volume of one or more organic solvents, which consequently results in environmental pollution. To mitigate these drawbacks, newly emerging technologies, such as enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE), microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) have received huge interest from researchers around the world. Therefore, in this review, the most recent and emerging technologies are discussed for the extraction of marine phenolic compounds of interest for their antioxidant and other bioactivity in, e.g., cosmetic and food industry. Moreover, the opportunities and the bottleneck for upscaling of these technologies are also presented.
Highlights
Phenolic compounds are secondary metabolites produced by plants, microorganisms, and algae.The marine environment is an excellent source of bioactive compounds, and this includes phenolic compounds
Phlorotannins are phenolic compounds that are exclusively found in brown seaweeds [5], which grow in the mentioned harsh environments, and their concentration is highly variable across the different seasons [6,7]
The newly emerging technologies could be based on the energy/mechanism they use for the extraction, such as ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE); microwave-assisted extraction (MAE); based on the use of biological agents such as enzymes, enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE); based on the use of new type of solvents like pressurized solvent extraction (PLE); and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE)
Summary
Phenolic compounds are secondary metabolites produced by plants, microorganisms, and algae. Marine phenolics show several biological activities [16], such as antioxidants [10,17], anti-inflammation [18,19,20], antimicrobial [21,22,23], anticoagulant [24], plant growth promoters [25], anticancer agents [26,27], angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibiting activity [28], antidiabetic [29], and antiproliferative [30] To get all these benefits of the marine phenolics and use them in different delivery systems, such as food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, the compounds need to be extracted from the sample matrix, characterized, and purified. The opportunities and challenges are discussed for the upscaling of these technologies
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