Much attention has been recently
paid to the design of sustainable
processes for the production of functional food additives based on
renewable resources. Thus, methods for incorporation of green techniques
in treatment of undeveloped biomass, resulting in value-added bioproducts,
are in great demand. We focus here on the biological activity and
chemical properties of
Erigeron canadensis
(horseweed) functional food fiber, which can be strongly affected
by the extraction procedure employed. In the present contribution,
we report on an attempt to introduce a sustainable and energy-efficient
ultrasound-assisted extraction process, followed by a multistep purification
procedure, resulting in a macromolecular plant-derived anticoagulant
agent. The most efficient ultrasound-assisted process was determined
by optimization through the response surface methodology
I
-optimal design (2
4
). A comparison with the conventional
procedure for retrieval of horseweed biomacromolecules revealed that
the optimized ultrasound-assisted extraction was more sustainable,
with the cumulative energy demand being 38% lower (12.2 MJ), 6.6 times
reduced water consumption (3.5 L), and 1.2 times shorter (41 h) total
processing time. Moreover, the optimal ultrasound-assisted extraction
process-purified food fiber turned out to be a better anticoagulant
agent by 57%, compared to a conventional product, and was a more selective
indirect inhibitor of the human Xa coagulation factor.