Sustainable Valorization of Plants and Agri-Food By-Products: Biotransformation, Standardization, and Functional Validation

Dear Colleagues,

Plant-based agri-food processing generates substantial quantities of peels, seeds, pomace, husks, leaves, press cakes and other residual materials. Although frequently treated as low-value residues, these materials contain phenolic compounds, carotenoids, polysaccharides, proteins, dietary fibers and other constituents with potential applications in food, agriculture, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and related bio-based industries.

Despite considerable progress in this field, many studies remain limited to crude extraction, preliminary chemical characterization and nonspecific antioxidant assays. Greater attention is needed for the biotransformation, standardization, stability, safety and mechanism-based validation of products obtained from plant-based agri-food by-products. Scalable processing methods and reliable evidence of functionality are also required to translate laboratory findings into reproducible and sustainable applications.

This Special Issue will address advanced strategies for converting plants and/or agri-food by-products into standardized bioactive ingredients and other value-added products. Particular attention will be given to microbial and enzymatic biotransformation, green separation technologies, metabolomic characterization, structure–function relationships, stabilization and delivery systems, bioaccessibility, safety assessment and mechanistic biological validation. Studies integrating mass balances, process efficiency, life-cycle assessment or techno-economic considerations are especially encouraged.

We welcome original research articles and critical reviews that advance the sustainable and scientifically rigorous valorization of plant-based agri-food by-products. Purely descriptive studies based only on total phenolic content or chemical antioxidant assays, without adequate characterization or functional validation, will fall outside the intended scope.

Suggested topics

• Microbial and enzymatic biotransformation of plant by-products;
• Fermentation-assisted release or modification of phytochemicals;
• Green extraction, separation and purification technologies;
• Metabolomics, chemometrics and molecular networking;
• Structural characterization of recovered compounds;
• Relationships between composition, structure and biological activity;
• Standardization and quality specifications for plant-derived ingredients;
• Stabilization, encapsulation and controlled delivery;
• Bioaccessibility, digestion and bioavailability;
• Mechanistic evaluation of biological activities;
• Toxicological assessment, contaminants and ingredient safety;
• Techno-functional properties in food formulations;
• Plant-derived biostimulants, bioprotectants and agricultural inputs;
• Cascading biorefineries and multiproduct valorization;
• Life-cycle assessment, mass balances and process scale-up.

Prof. Dr. Pedro Aguilar-Zarate
Prof. Dr. Jose Alberto Gallegos-Infante
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants 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 2700 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.

• plant-based by-products
• agri-food residues
• phytochemicals
• biotransformation
• fermentation
• green extraction
• secondary metabolites
• metabolomics
• functional ingredients
• encapsulation
• bioaccessibility
• standardization
• circular bioeconomy
• biorefinery
• sustainability