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Plants
Special Issues
Green Extraction and Bioactivity of Plant Natural Products
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Green Extraction and Bioactivity of Plant Natural Products

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Phytochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 10243

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Katya Carbone

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CREA Research Centre for Olive, Fruit and Citrus Crops, Via di Fioranello 52, 00134 Rome, Italy
Interests: natural products; bioactive food components; phytotherapy; antioxidants; natural products chemistry; green chemistry; biomaterials; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plants will jointly publish a Special Issue on green extraction techniques to recover plant phytochemicals in a sustainable way.

As consumers’ interest in food, functional and natural ingredients, and sustainable production grows, the world of research is being called upon to respond to an increasingly pressing challenge: achieving sustainable production processes through the application of efficient green extraction techniques to recover biologically active compounds from plants, without altering their biological properties. Indeed, several industrial sectors such as cosmetics, phytotherapy, food and medicinal products increasingly require natural extracts or compounds from extraction processes able to increase extraction efficiency (yield and selectivity towards the target compounds), reducing or eliminating fossil-based solvents, and that are also characterised by moderate energy consumption.

Recently, unconventional and innovative extraction techniques using ultrasounds, microwaves, high pressures, supercritical fluids, alternative solvents, pulsed electric fields, etc., have been developed to recover bioactive compounds from plants and their by-products, in order to achieve acceptable results in terms of both yield and environmental sustainability of the applied process. Therefore, considering the high level of interest in plant-derived bioactive compounds, this Special Issue will cover the most up-to-date knowledge on the green extraction of plant products and by-products in terms of innovative processes, methods, alternative solvents and product safety, contributing to increase the overall knowledge of both plant-based phytochemicals, their biological activities and innovative and sustainable extraction processes.

Dr. Katya Carbone
Guest Editor

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. 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.

Keywords

  • Phytochemistry
  • Naturally derived products
  • Green extraction techniques, Green solvents
  • Plant by-products

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 8532 KiB  
Article
Hop Leaves as an Alternative Source of Health-Active Compounds: Effect of Genotype and Drying Conditions
by Valentina Macchioni, Valentina Picchi and Katya Carbone
Plants 2022, 11(1), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11010099 - 29 Dec 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2036
Abstract
In hop cultivation, one-third of the crop is a valuable product (hop cones), and two-thirds is unexploited biomass, consisting mainly of leaves and stems, which, in a circular economy approach, can be recovered and, once stabilized, supplied to industrial sectors, such as cosmetics, [...] Read more.
In hop cultivation, one-third of the crop is a valuable product (hop cones), and two-thirds is unexploited biomass, consisting mainly of leaves and stems, which, in a circular economy approach, can be recovered and, once stabilized, supplied to industrial sectors, such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and phytotherapy, with high added value. In this regard, this study aimed to investigate the effects of two different drying methods: oven drying (OD) at 45 °C and freeze-drying (FD), on the overall nutraceutical profile (i.e., total phenols, total flavans and total thiols), pigment content (i.e., carotenoids and chlorophylls) and the antioxidant potential of leaves from five different Humulus lupulus varieties grown in central Italy. Moreover, attenuated total reflectance infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy was applied to dried leaf powders to study the influence of both the variety and treatment on their molecular fingerprints. The spectral data were then analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA), which was able to group the samples mainly based on the applied treatment. Considering the overall phytochemical profile, FD appeared to be the most suitable drying method, while OD provided higher carotenoid retention, depending on the genotype considered. Finally, unsupervised chemometric tools (i.e., PCA and hierarchical clustering) revealed that the two main clusters contained subclusters based on the drying treatment applied; these subgroups were related to the susceptibility of the variety to the drying conditions studied. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Extraction and Bioactivity of Plant Natural Products)
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18 pages, 1815 KiB  
Article
Use of Conventional and Innovative Technologies for the Production of Food Grade Hop Extracts: Focus on Bioactive Compounds and Antioxidant Activity
by Veronica Santarelli, Lilia Neri, Katya Carbone, Valentina Macchioni and Paola Pittia
Plants 2022, 11(1), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11010041 - 23 Dec 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2604
Abstract
This study investigated the use of conventional and innovative extraction methods to produce food-grade hop extracts with high antioxidant capacity and content in bioactive compounds. Conventional extractions (CONV) were performed under dynamic maceration at 25 and 60 °C; innovative extractions were performed using [...] Read more.
This study investigated the use of conventional and innovative extraction methods to produce food-grade hop extracts with high antioxidant capacity and content in bioactive compounds. Conventional extractions (CONV) were performed under dynamic maceration at 25 and 60 °C; innovative extractions were performed using two ultrasound systems, a laboratory bath (US) and a high-power ultrasound bath (HPUS), and a high-pressure industrial process. For CONV, US, and HPUS extractions the effect of the extraction time was also tested. Experimental results showed that extraction method, temperature, and time affect to a different extent the phenolic profile and have a significant effect (p < 0.05) on the total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, antiradical capacity (ABTS), chlorophyll α, and total carotenoids content. Overall, US and CONV 60 °C extractions showed the highest extraction efficiency for almost all the investigated compounds, however, the extraction method and time to be used strongly depends on the target compounds to extract. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Extraction and Bioactivity of Plant Natural Products)
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23 pages, 3360 KiB  
Article
A Study of Phytochemistry, Genoprotective Activity, and Antitumor Effects of Extracts of the Selected Lamiaceae Species
by Mariana Oalđe Pavlović, Stoimir Kolarević, Jelena Đorđević, Jovana Jovanović Marić, Tanja Lunić, Marija Mandić, Margareta Kračun Kolarević, Jelena Živković, Ana Alimpić Aradski, Petar D. Marin, Katarina Šavikin, Branka Vuković-Gačić, Biljana Božić Nedeljković and Sonja Duletić-Laušević
Plants 2021, 10(11), 2306; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10112306 - 27 Oct 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2828
Abstract
This study was designed to evaluate the genoprotective, antigenotoxic, as well as antitumor potential of methanolic, ethanolic, and aqueous extracts of Melissa officinalis, Mentha × piperita, Ocimum basilicum, Rosmarinus officinalis, Salvia officinalis, and Satureja montana (Lamiaceae), in different [...] Read more.
This study was designed to evaluate the genoprotective, antigenotoxic, as well as antitumor potential of methanolic, ethanolic, and aqueous extracts of Melissa officinalis, Mentha × piperita, Ocimum basilicum, Rosmarinus officinalis, Salvia officinalis, and Satureja montana (Lamiaceae), in different model systems. The polyphenols in these extracts were quantified both spectrophotometrically and using HPLC-DAD technique, while DPPH assay was used to assess the antioxidant activity. The genoprotective potential was tested on pUC19 Escherichia coli XL1-blue, and the antigenotoxicity on Salmonella typhimurium TA1535/pSK1002 and human lung fibroblasts, while the antitumor activity was assessed on colorectal cancer cells. Rosmarinic acid, quercetin, rutin, and luteolin-7-O-glucoside were among the identified compounds. Methanolic extracts had the best DPPH-scavenging and SOS-inducing activities, while ethanolic extracts exhibited the highest antigenotoxicity. Additionally, all extracts exhibited genoprotective potential on plasmid DNA. The antitumor effect was mediated by modulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), nitric oxide (NO) production, and exhibition of genotoxic effects on tumor cells, especially with O. basilicum ethanolic extract. Generally, the investigated extracts were able to provide antioxidant protection for the acellular, prokaryotic, and normal human DNA, while also modulating the production of ROS and NO in tumor cells, leading to genotoxicity toward these cells and their decrease in proliferation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Extraction and Bioactivity of Plant Natural Products)
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13 pages, 10546 KiB  
Article
Vitis vinifera L. Pruning Waste for Bud-Preparations as Source of Phenolic Compounds–Traditional and Innovative Extraction Techniques to Produce New Natural Products
by Dario Donno, Federica Turrini, Raffaella Boggia, Maddalena Guido, Giovanni Gamba, Maria Gabriella Mellano, Isidoro Riondato and Gabriele Loris Beccaro
Plants 2021, 10(11), 2233; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10112233 - 20 Oct 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1658
Abstract
Herbal products are now considered among the most important sources of phenolic compounds: the FINNOVER project aimed at the creation and development of sustainable supply chains to extract and use natural biologically active agents. Vitis vinifera is one of the most utilised herbal [...] Read more.
Herbal products are now considered among the most important sources of phenolic compounds: the FINNOVER project aimed at the creation and development of sustainable supply chains to extract and use natural biologically active agents. Vitis vinifera is one of the most utilised herbal products derived from buds and sprouts as polyphenolic food supplements for its homeostatic and astringent properties. This research was aimed to describe the antioxidant capacity and the phytochemical composition of V. vinifera herbal products by the application of spectroscopic and chromatographic fingerprints considering phenolics as potential markers to significantly differentiate traditional preparations (macerates) from innovative extracts obtained by an ultrasound extraction from V. vinifera buds. Two different commercial products were also considered. Flavonols were the most abundant class in ultrasound extracts (45%), while phenolic acids were the most important class in traditional macerates (49%) and commercial bud-preparations (about 50%). This study may support the potential use of V. vinifera bud-products (starting from pruning byproducts) as food supplements to integrate human diet with good amounts of phenolics. Finally, the use of different extraction methods on the same plant material could be an important development to produce innovative herbal products with a phytochemical composition similar to traditional preparations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Extraction and Bioactivity of Plant Natural Products)
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