Agro-Food Waste: From Bioactive Molecules to Materials
A Special Issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067) belonging to the section "Bioactives and Nutraceuticals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 603
Editors
Interests: natural product drug discovery; phytochemistry; liquid chromatography; essential oils; gas chromatography–mass spectrometry; solid phase extraction; high-performance liquid chromatography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: natural compounds; organic chemistry; secondary metabolites from mediterranean plants; volatile component
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The transition toward a circular economy requires innovative strategies to transform agro-food residues from waste streams into valuable resources. From this perspective, reducing, recycling , and reusing agro-industrial by-products represent a fundamental path towards decreasing environmental impact while generating high-value materials.
This Special Issue highlights recent advances in the recovery of bioactive compounds and structural biopolymers from agro-food waste and their application in the development of sustainable products.
Particular attention is devoted to the design of biodegradable packaging, protective films, eco-friendly coatings, and enriched cosmetic formulations derived from renewable residues. Such materials not only contribute to waste minimization but also offer functional properties that can enhance product stability, safety, and performance.
In turn, the extraction of bioactive metabolites from agro-food residues is increasingly achieved through innovative and sustainable methodologies. Techniques such as supercritical CO2 and microwave-assisted extraction, ultrasound-assisted processes, and the use of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) enable the efficient recovery of valuable compounds while reducing solvent consumption, energy demand, and environmental impact.
A crucial aspect of this research area lies in the rigorous characterization of the obtained materials. Advanced physico-chemical techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), solid- and liquid-state NMR spectroscopy, X-ray studies, biodegradability tests, and mass spectrometry, play a key role in elucidating composition, structure, and functional behavior, thereby supporting the development of reliable and scalable circular solutions.
This Special Issue, in addition to focusing on progress in the valorization of agri-food waste, will pay considerable attention to the mechanisms of action of metabolites derived from the by-products used. Agri-food waste can be a source of antioxidants, antimicrobials with beneficial effects on human health, and antipathogenic compounds, capable of inhibiting specific enzymes associated with diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and hypertension.
Dr. Natale Badalamenti
Dr. Antonella Maria Maggio
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- agro-food waste
- phytochemistry
- novel bio-products
- physical–chemical characterization
- innovative and sustainable extraction methodologies
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