Fruit and Vegetable Derived Waste as a Sustainable Alternative Source of Nutraceutical Compounds

Abstract

Dietary phytochemicals are widely investigated in the  eld of chemistry, biology, nutrition, and medicine for their potential health-promoting e‚ects. Indeed, many in vitro and in vivo studies provide evidence that a number of these compounds are involved in the prevention and/or control of chronic disorders such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. e exponential growth of plant waste production from the agrofood industry is a critical global issue, considering its storage, disposal, environmental impact, and potential health risks. However, the exploitation of plant wastes/by-products for the recovery of added-value compounds o‚ers new avenue for industrial growth and waste management. Indeed, the research and development of new functional foods and health products from low-cost raw materials is of great importance in nutraceutical, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and agribusiness sectors. Besides, optimizing the processing methods of waste products in order to reduce biomass utilization and environmental risks, as well as to improve recovery of added-value compounds, represents an urgent and necessary technological innovation for the bene t of mankind. In an industrial point of view, moreover, the utilization of food waste for recovering nutraceuticals is economical not only in production line but also in their disposal e purpose of this special issue is to feature the scienti cknowledge on the nutraceuticals associated with plant waste products derived from fruits and vegetables and their in vivo and in vitro bioactivities. e information disseminated through this issue is hoped to serve as an interdisciplinary link between biochemistry of nutrition, functional foods, and food technologies. Knowledge of not only quantity and quality of nutrients and nonnutrients present in such functional foods but also their bioactivity may provide broader and valuable information on the food quality  eld of research. is special issue about “Fruit and vegetable derived waste as a sustainable alternative source of nutraceutical compounds” covers research articles from di‚erent perspectives. Overall, most of the papers have been related to (i) extraction and characterization of bioactive compounds from plant by-products as sources of health-related bene- cial compounds; (ii) process ptimization; (iii) development of new products and functional foods; and (iv) in vitro and in vivo bioactivities of nutraceutical components present or extracted from plant food wastes. Among the submitted manuscripts,  ve papers have been selected to be part of this special issue. e paper authored by V. Lele et al. deals with the development of chewing candy (CC)—utraceutical formulations from juices and by-products of juices of the fruits sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) and quince (Cydonia oblonga L.) with antimicrobial properties against a panel of pathogenic bacteria strains. Two texture-forming agents (agar and gelatin) were tested for CC formulation. e results obtained in this study indicated that all samples (juices and juice byproducts) displayed antimicrobial activity against all the Hindawi Journal of Food Quality Volume 2018, Article ID 8136190, 2 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/8136190 pathogens tested, and the largest inhibition zones against Bacillus and Proteus mirabilis were observed for sea buckthorn juice and quince juice, respectively. Moreover, the addition of all samples (sea buckthorn and quince juices and juice by-products) increased the antioxidant activity and total phenolic content of CC. $erefore, taken together all results, not just juice but also juice by-products, have great potential as desirable antimicrobial ingredients for the food industry with the best acceptability values found for CC prepared with agar and sea buckthorn juice by-products and with gelatin and quince juice. Abundant residues are generated by industrial proc