The Use of Emerging and Environmentally Friendly Extraction Techniques in Food Science

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Engineering and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 1711

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratorio de Análisis del Aroma y Enología, Departamento de Química Analítica, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón (UNIZAR-CITA), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: aroma and flavor analysis; sensory analysis; oxidation; bioactive compounds; pressurized green solvents; food by-products; chromatography; mass spectrometry; analytical chemistry; metabolomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Food Science Research, Spanish National Research Council (CIAL-CSIC), Madrid, Spain
Interests: food analysis; comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC × LC); green bioactive extraction; food quality

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Today, there is a collective increasing demand for the sustainable development of more eco-friendly food processes. In this sense, foods and food by-products are continuously evaluated as sources of compounds of interest for several applications in the food, pharma, and cosmetic industries. In this context, the method of extraction is the primary concern for reaching these types of products. For this reason, new emerging technologies such as supercritical fluid extraction, pressurized liquid extraction, ultrasound-assisted extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, and enzyme-assisted extraction, among others, combined with the use of green solvents, specifically deep eutectic solvents and bio-based solvents are hot topic solutions that comply with the principles of green chemistry and circular economy when they are used to valorize food by-products or develop new biorefinery strategies, which contribute to reducing the negative environmental effect of the current food system. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to explore eco-friendly methods for obtaining products with food applications, such as bioactive ingredients, additives to enhance food quality from diverse sources, or the formulation of new food products by the addition/elimination of ingredients applying emergent extraction techniques.

Original research papers and review articles related to, but not limited to, the following topics are welcome: extraction, fractionation and purification, biological activities, complex approaches based on process integration, deep eutectic solvents, biosolvents, intensification, and biorefinery platforms, the valorization of food by-products, pretreatments, enzymatic reactions, scaling up, and economic and environmental impacts.

Dr. Mónica Bueno
Dr. Lidia Montero
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • microwave-assisted extraction (MAE)
  • pulsed electric field-assisted extraction
  • ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE)
  • enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE)
  • compressed fluid technologies (PLE, GXL, SFE)
  • green solvents
  • deep eutectic solvents
  • bio-based solvents
  • sustainability
  • environmental impact
  • food extraction
  • bioactive ingredients
  • food by-products
  • biorefinery

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

24 pages, 2134 KiB  
Article
Recovery of Bioactive Constituents from Olive Leaf Pruning Waste of Five Different Cultivars: A Comparison of Green Extraction Techniques to Maximize Health Benefits
by Hamid Mushtaq, Simona Piccolella, Jose A. Mendiola, Lidia Montero, Elena Ibáñez and Severina Pacifico
Foods 2025, 14(2), 297; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods14020297 - 17 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1185
Abstract
Sustainable agro-waste revaluation is critical to enhance the profitability and environmental footprint of the olive oil industry. Herein, the valorization of olive leaf pruning waste from five cultivars (‘Caiazzana’, ‘Carolea’, ‘Itrana’, ‘Leccino’, and ‘Frantoio’) employed green extraction methods to recover compounds with potential [...] Read more.
Sustainable agro-waste revaluation is critical to enhance the profitability and environmental footprint of the olive oil industry. Herein, the valorization of olive leaf pruning waste from five cultivars (‘Caiazzana’, ‘Carolea’, ‘Itrana’, ‘Leccino’, and ‘Frantoio’) employed green extraction methods to recover compounds with potential health benefits. Sequential ultrasound-assisted maceration (UAM) in n-hexane and ethanol was compared with a compressed fluid extraction strategy consisting of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) for their efficiency in recovering distinct classes of bioactives. Chemical profiling by UHPLC-HR-MS/MS (ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry) and GC-MS (gas chromatography mass spectrometry) showed that UAM-EtOH effectively extracted polyphenols (especially luteolin derivatives) and triterpenes (notably maslinic acid), while PLE yielded the highest amount of secoiridoids (e.g., secologanoside). PLE extracts showed better antiradical activities, putatively due to a higher content of flavonoids, secoiridoids, and HCA derivatives than UAM-EtOH ones, as these latter also contained 20–40% (cultivar-dependent) of triterpenes. SFE extracts with a higher concentration of fatty acids and triterpenes showed moderate antioxidant activities but very high AChE inhibition. This study highlights the importance of selecting appropriate extraction methodologies based on the target bioactive compounds and underscores the potential of olive leaf extracts for sustainable bio-products. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Back to TopTop