Artichoke Biorefinery: From Food to Advanced Technological Applications

Abstract

A sequential extraction process has been designed for valorizing globe artichoke plant residues and waste (heads, leaves, stalks, and roots left in the field) by means of green extraction techniques according to a biorefinery approach. We investigated two cascading extractions based on microwave-assisted extractions (MAE) and green solvents (water and ethanol) that have been optimized for varying temperature, solvent and extraction time. In the first step, phenols were extracted with yields that ranged between 6.94 mg g−1 dw (in leaves) and 3.28 mg g−1 dw (in roots), and a phenols productivity of 175.74 kg Ha−1. In the second step, inulin was extracted with impressive yields (42% dw), higher than other conventional inulin sources, corresponding to an inulin productivity of 4883.58 kg Ha−1. The remaining residues were found to be valuable feedstocks both for bioenergy production and green manure (back to the field), closing the loop according to the Circular Economy paradigm.

Food Industry Byproducts as Starting Material for Innovative, Green Feed Formulation: A Sustainable Alternative for Poultry Feeding

“…In the last years, non-conventional extraction techniques, such as PLE, MAE and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), have also been applied for the extraction from artichoke wastes [ 61 , 63 , 71 ]. In particular, PLE and MAE have been applied to the extraction of inositols and inulin from artichoke bracts.…”

“…In a recent study, Francavilla et al [ 63 ] investigated two cascading extraction methods based on MAE in hydroethanolic mixtures, aiming to improve temperature, solvent and extraction time conditions. An aqueous solution, a 100% EtOH solution and three different EtOH/H 2 O mixtures (25, 59 and 75%, v / v ) were used at three different temperatures (50, 75 and 100 °C) with three different extraction times (5, 10 and 20 min) [ 63 ]. The process, designed for valorizing different globe artichoke plant residues, was conducted in two steps.…”

“…Artichoke ( Cynara scolymus L.) has been used as food and as a traditional remedy since ancient times due to its high quantities of bioactive compounds [ 59 , 60 , 61 ]. Much like the winemaking industry, the industrial processing of artichokes also generates large amounts of waste biomass [ 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 ]. These discarded materials still contain a large variety of bioactive compounds endowed with therapeutic properties [ 61 ].…”

Antioxidant, Antimicrobial and Metmyoglobin Reducing Activity of Artichoke (Cynara scolymus) Powder Extract-Added Minced Meat during Frozen Storage

“…In the literature, the amount of bioactive components passing into the solvent in concentrated extracts was reported to be high [10]. A past study about total phenolic content in ethanol extracts of the artichoke demonstrated that the extracts were rich in total phenolic (32.2 mg GAE/g) [24,25]. Curadi et al [26] found that total phenolic content in artichoke byproducts were found to be between 7.31 and 13.05 mg/g in the methanol extracts as chlorogenic acid equivalent.…”

Value-Added Products from Agro-Food Residues

“…Another paper of this Special Issue is focused on the use of artichoke crop residues as raw materials for the production of valuable compounds, specifically phenols and inulin [ 19 ]. Inulin is a natural storage polysaccharide in plants that is considered a prebiotic compound which is indigestible by humans but stimulates the growth and activity of specific microorganisms of the colon [ 20 ].…”