Planta Med 2015; 81 - PW_147
DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1565771

Exploitation of agricultural by-products for the recovery of bioactive compounds with applications in cosmetic industry

P Vlachou 1, K Stathopoulou 1, K Georgousaki 1, N Lemonakis 1, N Aligiannis 1, AL Skaltsounis 1, N Fokialakis 1
  • 1Department of Pharmacognosy and Natural Products Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis Zografou, Athens, Greece

The agricultural, food and forestry industries produce large amounts of by-products that are considered wastes. However, recent studies have shown that these by-products contain bioactive compounds with several applications in industry.

In the present study, we investigated by-products derived from the wood industry of P. nigra, P. heldreichii, E. globulus and J. phoenicea and the food-juice industry of P. granatum and P. persica. Totally, 20 (H2O, EtOH & H2O/EtOH) extracts and 4 hydrosols were investigated initially using HPLC and LC-HRMS for identification of their major compounds. The bark from Pinus species showed high level of phenolic constituents (catechin, epicatechin, taxifolin, phenolic acids), while the bark from Eucalyptus was rich in total phenols, polymeric proanthocyanidins and ellagitannins. The major constituents of peach were flavonoids (luteolin, prunin, taxifolin), triterpenes, and phenolic acids. Pomegranate peel consisted of punicalagins, anthocyanidins, gallic acid and several flavonoids.

The samples were evaluated for their antioxidant activity using DPPH and ABTS assays and for their whitening activity by the tyrosinase-inhibitory method. The extracts were also analyzed for their total phenolic content according to the Folin-Ciocalteu procedure and their total flavonoid content using AlCl3 colorimetric assay.

It is noteworthy that the extracts of P. granatum and E. globulus showed significant phenolic (up to 103.9 and 103.2 mg GAE/g, respectively) and flavonoid (up to 29.3 and 15.7 mg EQC/g) content with strong antioxidant activity (up to 81% and 71% inhibition of DPPH, up to 100% and 99.8 inhibition of ABTS, and up to 44.6 and 48.6% inhibition of tyrosinase at 300 µg/mL, respectively). Thus those agricultural by-products could serve as potential cost effective source of bioactive extracts, with applications in cosmeceutical industry.

Acknowledgment: This work has been financially supported by Greek GSRT (1440-BET-2013-AGROSMETICS project).