Extraction and purification of antioxidant frections from foreing species

Resumo

The valorization of foreign vegetal species present in local environment is of special interest in the last years because there is an increased demand of natural ingredients obtained with environmentally-friendly technologies for food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biotechnological applications. The present work included the optimization of the conditions for the extraction and purification of bioactive products from three different types of vegetal biomass: the macroalga Sargassum muticum, the flower Acacia dealbata and the mushroom Hericium erinaceus. The phD student María Parada Casas developed experiments with leading-edge technologies in different biomass matrixes as biological extraction, like enzyme-assisted extraction, and physico-chemical extraction, like subcritical water extraction, supercritical CO2 extraction, microwave-assisted extraction and solvent fractionation. The purification of the fractions with resins allowed her to obtain potential high-added value products with concentrated active compounds. The promising activities of the products are based on the results from the in vitro analytical methods for antioxidant and antiradical capacities, and the in vitro cell culture biological methods she developed during a short term period research in a foreign university in O Porto, Portugal.