Advances in Converting Citrus Wastes into Value-Added Products

Dear Colleagues,

The journal Plants will be publishing a Special Issue on “Advances in Converting Citrus Wastes into Value-Added Products”. Citrus are the  world’s largest grown fruit crop and post processing of citrus fruits leaves approximately half (45-55%) of the fruit as waste which is largely inedible. Dumping of untreated waste creates environmental pollution and health hazards. On the other hand valorization of this waste has been found to produce encouraging results in terms of materials and economy. Extraction, purification and characterization of important phytochemical molecules, such as polyphenols, carotenoids, limonene and essential oils, pectin, seed oils, etc., extracted from citrus wastes through modern extraction and purification techniques have been extensively explored in the current time. Furthermore, the research on corresponding metabolites and derived products, have garnered huge interest beyond traditional medicines at domestic levels and expanded immensely into clinical, pharmacological, cosmetic and even industrial levels. Indeed, natural products are extremely rich sources of important phytochemicals and functional biomolecules which are useful for a multitude of applications ranging from general health supplements, food additives; nutraceutical and pharmaceutical formulations, digestives; biopolymers and functional polymeric blends derived from limonene; synthetic chemicals; products from biotransformation of citrus wastes, such as biofuels (biomethane, bioethanol), enzymes, organic acids, pre-biotic, single cell proteins, and so on. In the past few decades, a wide variety of methods/techniques have emerged and are in the process of continuous development, to extract and purify pectin and essential oils for commercial purposes. The health benefits of essential oils have been adored since ancient times till today. On the other hand, with global rise in the demands by consumers for health products derived from plants and natural resources rather than artificial and synthetic means have introduced huge opportunity in the markets worldwide to receive newer materials from innovative researches. Recent progresses in the research in this regard include enhancing shelf-life of the health products, maintenance and improvement of nutritional attributes, formulation of functional products, innovation in biotechnological approaches, and constructing a global database. Thus, considering the high interest in citrus waste-derived phytochemicals and functional biomolecules as an emerging field of research for modern drug development, health and dietary supplements, biofuels and bio-organic products, this Special Issue will cover a wide variety of areas addressing citrus waste as a natural, renewable, sustainable and economic resource for the production of valuable products and aiming to contribute to the overall knowledge from several aspects.

Prof. Dr. Neelima Mahato
Dr. Prabhat Kumar Rai
Dr. Mehnaz Kamal
Prof. Dr. Francesco Meneguzzoe
Guest Editors

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