Evolution of cherries texture in brine: Impact of harvest conditions during long-time storage

Food Wastes and Microalgae as Sources of Bioactive Compounds and Pigments in a Modern Biorefinery: A Review

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has created more pressure on countries and society at large for the development of alternative solutions for synthetic and fossil fuel derived products, thus mitigating climate change and environmental hazards. Food wastes and microalgae have been studied for decades as potential sources of several compounds that could be employed in various fields of application from pharmaceutical to textile and packaging. Although multiple research efforts have been put towards extracting rich compounds (i.e., phenolic compounds, tocopherols, and tocotrienols) from these sources, they still remain overlooked as two major sources of bioactive compounds and pigments, mainly due to inefficient extraction processes. Hence, there is a growing need for the development of optimized extraction methods while employing non-organic solvent options following the main principles of green chemistry. This review will focus on delivering a clear and deep analysis on the existing procedures for obtaining bioactive compounds and pigments from food wastes derived from the most consumed and produced fruit crops in the world such as apples, oranges, cherries, almonds, and mangoes, and microalgal biomass, while giving light to the existing drawbacks in need to be solved in order to take full advantage of the rich properties present in these two major biorefinery sources.

Modification of Olive Leaves’ Surface by Ultrasound Cavitation. Correlation with Polyphenol Extraction Enhancement

We investigated the impact of ultrasound at 20 kHz on olive leaves to understand how acoustic cavitation could increase polyphenol extraction. Application of ultrasound to whole leaf from 5 to 60 min enabled us to increase extraction from 6.96 to 48.75 µg eq. oleuropein/mL of extract. These results were correlated with Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy, allowing for leaf surface observation and optical microscopy of treated leaf cross sections to understand histochemical modifications. Our observations suggest that the effectiveness of ultrasound applied to extraction is highly dependent on plant structure and on how this material will react when subjected to acoustic cavitation. Ultrasound seems to impact the leaves by two mechanisms: cuticle erosion, and fragmentation of olive leaf surface protrusions (hairs), which are both polyphenol-rich structures.

Effects of two sweet cherry cultivars (Prunus avium L., cvv. 'Ferrovia' and 'Lapins') on the shelf life of an innovative bakery product

Sweet cherries are important fruits for human health, but their consumption is quite limited because of their seasonality and short shelf life. Consequently, these fruits are often subjected to technological treatments, but as a result, their consumption may involve significant intake of sugar and calories that tend to enhance many metabolic diseases. Agricultural science has characterized the different cultivars of fresh sweet cherries, but less literature is available about the suitability of different cultivars for industrial applications. The aim of this research was to design a model system to create an innovative bakery product with minimally processed fruits. Moreover, an evaluation of the suitability of two sweet cherry cultivars was performed to determine how to use these cultivars in an innovative bakery product and the effects on their shelf life. The results showed that the 'Ferrovia' cultivar is more suitable for use as a bakery product filling than 'Lapins' sweet cherries. During 75 days of storage at room temperature, 'Lapins' sweet cherries had aw and moisture values lower than those of 'Ferrovia'. Moreover, samples filled with 'Lapins' sweet cherries were harder than samples filled with 'Ferrovia' cherries. The technological processing of the sweet cherries caused a loss in antioxidant capacity that was more pronounced for 'Lapins' than 'Ferrovia' cherries (from 13.63 to 0.67 TEAC µmol g-1 DW and 11.37-2.70 TEAC µmol g-1 DW, respectively). This research highlights the importance of the cultivar for fresh consumption and processing of sweet cherry fruits, and the results show that if both cultivars are equally ripe, the cherry cultivar that retains a higher flesh firmness is more preferable for use.