Recovery and Concentration of Antioxidants from Industrial Effluents and from Processing Streams of Underutilized Vegetal Biomass

摘要

The research on alternative sources of natural food antioxidants has been incentivized by the contradictory information available on the safety of synthetic antioxidants and the biological properties of the natural ones. In this field, the utilization of abundant, biorenewable and low cost sources (for example, waste fractions from agricultural and industrial activities and the underutilized forestal and marine algal biomass) has attracted a special interest. The efficient utilization of these raw materials by methods involving environmentally friendly technologies has become a major target. In this study, the role of separation methods based on membranes and/or resins for the concentration and recovery of different fractions with antioxidant properties (ascribed to phenolics, soluble proteins and/or oligosaccharides) from liquid effluents obtained by processing residual and underutilized vegetal biomass is reviewed.