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An abstract of the study "Zona Pellucida Tagging With Barcodes Allows the Traceability of Bovine Embryos Cultured in Group," by S. Novo and colleagues is presented.

An abstract of the study "Psammaplin A Increases Development and Quality of Mouse Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Embryos," by A. Mallol et al is presented.

Introduction. Due to the change in the health care model for mental patients focused on the hospital to community care in recent decades, schizophrenic patients live with their families. This study aims to study the burden of family members or caregivers of schizophrenic patients before and after the application of a specific psychoeducational program for caregivers. Methods. A psychoeducational program aimed at three groups was conducted: a) relatives of patients with schizophrenia who received educational program; b) parents or relatives on a previous educational program themselves, and c) control group (not including either parents or patients who received educational programs). The Zarit scale was used to rate burden in the three groups before and after completing the educational program. Results. Application of the program was associated to a significant reduction of burden in the groups where it was provided compared with the control group that did not receive the program, independently of the treatment received for the patients. Conclusions. Evidence suggests that these programs should be included in the therapeutical strategies for patients with schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ackground. Ligamentization has been accepted in Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) surgery. The purpose of this study is to evaluate ligamentization of different allografts and autografts used as plasties through histological and type I collagen (COL1), tenascin (TEN) and elastin (ELA) expression analysis. Methods. Prospective study of patients who underwent ACL reconstruction with at least 1-year follow-up. Biopsies were taken by arthroscopy and tissue sections were stained with hematoxilin-eosin and Masson's trichrome. Relative COL1, TEN and ELA expression was studied by RT-PCR. Hamstring tendon and intact ACL biopsies were used as controls. Results. Eleven patients with a mean age of 36.6 ± 12.0 years were included. In 9 cases, ACL reconstruction was carried-out with autologous hamstring tendons while in the 2 remaining patients ACL was reconstructed using an achilles allograft. COL1, TEN and ELA expression of plasties was significantly different to ACL but similar to hamstring tendon. Histological analysis showed a dense fibroconnective tissue with cells similar to tenocytes, which could not be classified neither as a tendon nor as a ligament. Conclusions. An ACL plasty, independently of its origin (autologous hamstring or allogeneic achilles) does not become a ligament, at least in our study period (5 years) but it does maintain ACL functionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A green platform based on a three-step downstream processing including the use of supercritical carbon dioxide (ScCO 2 ), carbon dioxide-expanded ethanol (CXE) and pressurized hot water (PHWE) extractions has been developed to obtain different fractions from Moringa oleifera leaves. Each process was optimized based on the extraction yield. Optimal extracts were functionally characterized by measuring total phenolic (TPC) and total flavonoid contents (TF). The antioxidant activity by TEAC assay was also tested. Moreover, a chemical characterization of the extracts was performed by GC–MS and HPLC–ESI–QTOF–MS. The extraction yields of the optimized process were 3.1, 29.5 and 30.2% respectively. The extraction of total phenolics was higher in PHWE than in CXE extract (62.4 vs. 20.3 mg GAE/g leaves) while TF showed the opposite (3.8 vs. 9.6 mg quercetin/g leaves respectively). ScCO 2 fraction was rich in fatty acids such as α-linoleic acid and alkanes. CXE fraction was richer in glycosylated flavonoids than PHWE while the latest fraction was richer in phenolic acids, which could explain the higher antioxidant activity of this fraction (13.4 mmol Eq trolox/100 g dry leaves) compared to CXE (6 mmol Eq trolox/100 g dry leaves). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural bioactives are an excellent source of carotenoids for the production of nutraceuticals, functional foods and food additives. The extraction efficiencies of solid-liquid extraction (SLE), supercritical CO 2 , supercritical CO 2 with ethanol as co-solvent for the recovery of the carotenoids, xanthophyll and fucoxanthin, from two brown macroalgae Fucus serratus and Laminaria digitata were explored. The extraction efficiency was measured using both purity and yield of target compounds. Solid liquid extraction (hexane/acetone (70:30) at 50 °C for 24 h produced the greatest yield of carotenoid rich extracts from F. serratus . Optimal conditions in terms of carotenoid yield using supercritical CO 2 were 50 °C, 300 Atm with an extraction time of 60 min. SCO 2 yielded a higher purity of fucoxanthin while SLE resulted in a higher purity of xanthophyll. Seasonal/spatial variation based on the purity and yield was also investigated to provide valuable information on optimal harvest time for these compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rosemary bioactivity is correlated with the presence of phenolic diterpenes (carnosic acid, carnosol) and phenolic acids (rosmarinic acid). In the present work, two processes, pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) and supercritical antisolvent fractionation (SAF) were integrated to separate and enrich these families of compounds. The optimization of the SAF process was carried out using a response surface methodology (RSM) with three factors: (i) CO 2 pressure, (ii) percentage of water in the PLE extract and (iii) PLE extract/SC-CO 2 flow ratio. The selected responses were the relative amount of each compound (rosmarinic acid (RA) and carnosic acid + carnosol (CA + CS)), total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and antiproliferative activity against HT-29 colon cancer cells. The higher CA + CS content was obtained at 100 bar, 50% (v/v) of water in the feed solution and 0.025 feed/SC-CO 2 mass flow ratio, achieving values of 478.1 mg/g extract and 17% of cell survival after 24 h of treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copaifera langsdorffii is a native Brazilian plant containing important amounts of polyphenols and diterpenes with biological activity. To obtain extracts enriched in these two types of compounds, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) conditions have been optimized by using a response surface methodology (RSM) and considering as factors: extraction pressure and temperature and percentage of co-solvent (ethanol). The response variables selected were the concentration of the two most representative compounds in C. langsdorffii , kaurenoic acid (diterpenic acid) and quercitrin (glycosylated flavonol), total flavonoids content, and antioxidant activity (measured by DPPH and TEAC assays). According to the statistical analysis of the experimental design, extraction temperature and ethanol percentage were the main factors influencing the selectivity towards the extraction of the target compounds. Two optimized extracts were obtained: (1) containing high amount of total flavonoids, high concentration of quercitrin and low EC 50 for the DPPH assay, named HQE—High Quercitrin Extract (100 bar, 70 °C and 50% of ethanol, in the region of gas-expanded liquids, GXLs) and (2) containing high value of kaurenoic acid extract, named HKAE-High Kaurenoic Acid Extract, (390 bar, 70 °C and pure CO 2 ). Chemical characterization by LC/MS of HQE showed the presence of galloylquinic acids and flavonoids while, on the other hand, HKAE presented only nonpolar compounds such as kaurenoic acid. Moreover, a solid–liquid extraction (SLE) with methanol was carried out as a benchmark protocol for comparative purposes. SFE presented approximately 10-fold higher content of total flavonoids than the extracts obtained by SLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fast and green process for the isolation of high value lipids from different marine microorganisms is presented involving the use of limonene, a green biodegradable solvent, as an alternative to traditional hexane extraction. The optimized process is based on pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) at 200 °C for 15 min using limonene:ethanol (1:1, v/v) as extracting solvent. Under these conditions, lipids were extracted from different microalgae such as Spirulina, Phormidium, Anabaena and Stigeoclonium and their composition in terms of fatty acids were studied by using a Fast-GC–MS method and compared with the original content in the raw material. The extraction method provided the best results in terms of extraction yield for Spirulina, meanwhile the highest amount of ω-3 fatty acids were obtained from Stigeoclonium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The simultaneous analysis of fat- and water-soluble vitamins from foods is a difficult task considering the wide range of chemical structures involved. In this work, a new procedure based on a sequential extraction and analysis of both types of vitamins is presented. The procedure couples several simple extraction steps to LC–MS/MS and LC–DAD in order to quantify the free vitamins contents in fresh-cut vegetables before and after a 10-days storage period. The developed method allows the correct quantification of vitamins C, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, E and provitamin A in ready-to-eat green leafy vegetable products including green lettuce, ruby red lettuce, watercress, swiss chard, lamb''s lettuce, spearmint, spinach, wild rocket, pea leaves, mizuna, garden cress and red mustard. Using this optimized methodology, low LOQs were attained for the analyzed vitamins in less than 100min, including extraction and vitamin analysis using 2 optimized procedures; good repeatability and linearity was achieved for all vitamins studied, while recoveries ranged from 83% to 105%. The most abundant free vitamins found in leafy vegetable products were vitamin C, provitamin A and vitamin E. The richest sample on vitamin C and provitamin A was pea leaves (154mg/g fresh weight and 14.4mg/100g fresh weight, respectively), whereas lamb''s lettuce was the vegetable with the highest content on vitamin E (3.1mg/100g fresh weight). Generally, some losses of vitamins were detected after storage, although the behavior of each vitamin varied strongly among samples. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Production of prebiotic carbohydrates at competitive prices is a challenge nowadays since the well-established production processes involve many purification steps which are labour intensive and require important amounts of reagents and products thus increasing prebiotic''s price. Several processes have been studied in our laboratory involving the use of Supercritical Fluid Technology to fractionate and purify carbohydrate solid mixtures. Research carried out at laboratory scale using theoretical mixtures (lactose/lactulose and galactose/tagatose), commercially available carbohydrate mixtures and carbohydrate mixtures produced by enzymatic transglycosylation and isomerized with complexating reagents demonstrated that purification of prebiotic carbohydrates was technically possible by supercritical fluid extraction. In the present work, the process optimized at laboratory scale to fractionate carbohydrate mixtures produced by enzymatic transglycosylation has been scaled-up to an industrial level and its economic feasibility has been simulated employing AspenONE® V7.3 software to obtain consistent data supporting the interest of a potential investment for prebiotics production at large scale using supercritical fluids. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Carminic acid is a natural colourant that can be obtained from the dried bodies of females of the Dactylopius coccus Costa insect species (cochineal). Carminic acid is the main pigment that can be extracted from the cochineal insect. Its main use is with cosmetics, foods and pharmaceutical applications and it can also have textile and plastic applications. The traditional extraction methods employed to obtain this dye involve several drawbacks, e.g. high extraction time, low selectivity and low extraction efficiency. Moreover, these conventional techniques need toxic solvents. In this work, new extraction methods have been studied in order to avoid the disadvantages mentioned above. Pressurised liquid extraction (PLE) and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) techniques provide high selectivity and short extraction times. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the present work, a comparative study between two environmentally friendly and selective extraction techniques, such as supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) have been carried out focusing in the bioactive phenolic compounds present in Rosmarinus officinalis. For the analysis of the SFE and PLE extracts, a new methodology for qualitative characterization has been developed, based on the use of reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), equipped with two different detection systems coupled in series: diode array detector (DAD) and time of flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) detector connected via an electrospray ionization interface (ESI). The use of a small particle size C18 column (1.8μm) provided a great resolution and made possible the separation of several isomers. Moreover, UV–visible spectrophotometry is a valuable tool for identifying the class of phenolic compounds, whereas MS data enabled to structurally characterize the compounds present in the extracts. The applied methodology was useful for the determination of many well-known phenolic compounds present in R. officinalis, such as carnosol, carnosic acid, rosmadial, rosmanol, genkwanin, homoplantaginin, scutellarein, cirsimaritin and rosmarinic acid, as well as other phenolic compounds present in other species belonging to Lamiaceae family. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this contribution, pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) has been employed to isolate bioactive compounds from three native Romanian plants, oregano (Origanum vulgare), tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus) and wild thyme (Thymus serpyllum). Different PLE conditions have been tested including extraction with water, ethanol and their mixtures in a wide range of extraction temperatures (50–200°C), and the antioxidant capacity of the extracts was measured using different assays (DPPH radical scavenging, TEAC assay and Folin–Ciocalteau assay to measure total phenols). Moreover, a complete chemical characterization by using LC–MS/MS was carried out to be able to correlate the bioactivity with the particular chemical composition of each extract and plant. The use of PLE with water as a solvent at the highest temperature tested (200°C) always provided the highest extraction yields for the three studied plants, being maximum for oregano (>60%). Besides, oregano''s pressurized water extracts at lower temperatures (50°C) presented the highest content on total phenols (184.9mggallicacid/gextract) and the best antioxidant activities (EC50 6.98μg/ml). In general, oregano extracts were the most active, followed by wild thyme extracts. The antioxidant capacity measured by DPPH assay was highly correlated with the amount of total phenols. Moreover, the use of a LC–MS/MS method allowed the identification of 30 different phenolic compounds in the different extracts, including phenolic acids, flavones, flavanones and flavonols, which have an important influence on the total antioxidant capacity of the different extracts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Natural antioxidants have attracted attention owing to their potential good effects in health. On the other hand, valorization of residues is an opportunity to obtain profit in a sustainable way. In this work antioxidants were obtained from residues of rosemary after extraction of essential oil using steam distillation, hydrodistillation and Solvent Free Microwave Extraction (SFME). A solvent extraction with ethanol was used to obtain the antioxidants. Then a comparison of the results is made in order to know which process delivers a residue with higher concentration of antioxidants. Mass transfer rates of antioxidants from leaves are increased as a result of the previous extraction of essential oils. Higher yields and rates of extract from leaves after SFME have been observed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Nowadays, the application of green chemistry principles in the production of new polymeric materials is receiving an increasing attention. In the present work, we have investigated the impregnation of chitosan with lactulose using supercritical fluids under various operating conditions, in order to improve the solubility of this natural polymer at neutral or basic pH. A comparison between chitosan scaffolds and microspheres is also presented; both chitosans were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The degree of impregnation was evaluated by quantitative gas chromatography (GC-FID) analysis and interactions chitosan–lactulose by ninhydrin method. The supercritical carbon dioxide impregnation proved to be feasible for both chitosan forms. The highest impregnation yield (8.6%) was obtained for chitosan scaffolds using the following impregnation parameters: continuous process, 60min contact time, 14% (v/v) of co-solvent ethanol:water (95:5), depressurization rate equal to 3.3bar/min, 100bar of pressure and 100°C. Under these conditions, Maillard reaction also occurred. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Food-grade complex oligosaccharide mixtures manufactured commercially via transglycosylase reactions using disaccharides, such as sucrose or lactose as the raw material, are, in general, not pure products. Reducing oligosaccharides may be isomerized using borates and aluminates as complexating agents to obtain prebiotic oligosaccharides. Complexating agents are used to avoid side-reactions but are difficult to remove from mixture. In the present work, a new process based on the extraction with supercritical CO2 plus a co-solvent has been developed to purify reaction mixtures leading to pure prebiotic oligosaccharides. A three-step supercritical extraction process has been designed to purify carbohydrates according to its degree of polymerization; the appropriate selection of the co-solvent employed, together with the most suitable extraction conditions allowed the almost complete removal of monosaccharides, and disaccharides from the mixture, leading to pure oligosaccharides as a residue of the extraction process. In this process, not only complete fractionation of mono-, di- and trisaccharides was achieved but also elimination of borates and aluminates from the prebiotic carbohydrates mixture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this contribution, the performance of three different extraction procedures towards the extraction of antioxidants from rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is presented. Namely, pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), using water and ethanol as solvents, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), using neat CO2 and supercritical CO2 modified with ethanol, as well as a novel extraction process called Water Extraction and Particle formation On-line (WEPO) are directly compared. Different extraction conditions including temperatures, times and pressures have been studied. The produced extracts have been characterized in terms of extraction yield, antioxidant activity (using the DPPH radical scavenging method) and total phenols (using the Folin method). Besides, all the extracts have been chemically characterized using a new quantitative UPLC-MS/MS method. This method allowed the determination of the main antioxidants present in rosemary, including, among others, rosmarinic acid, carnosic acid and carnosol, attaining detection limits as low as 2ng/mL. The results obtained in this study show that PLE using ethanol at high temperatures (200°C) was able to produce extracts with high antioxidant activity (EC50 8.8μg/mL) and high yield (ca. 40%) while efficiently extracting antioxidants of diverse polarity, among them, carnosic and rosmarinic acids, regarded as the most important antioxidants present in rosemary. Nevertheless, in this work, the ability of the three studied environmentally friendly extraction techniques to obtain bioactives from natural sources is demonstrated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this work, extraction and characterization of compounds with antioxidant and antimicrobial activity from Haematococcus pluvialis microalga in red phase have been carried out. To do this, subcritical water extraction (SWE) has been combined with analytical techniques such as HPLC–DAD, HPLC–QqQ-MS and GC–MS and in vitro assays (i.e., for antioxidant and antimicrobial activity). The effect of the extraction temperature (50, 100, 150 and 200°C) and solvent polarity has been studied in terms of yield and activity of the extracts. Results demonstrate that the extraction temperature has a positive influence in the extraction yield and antioxidant activity. Thus, the extraction yield achieved with this process was higher than 30% of dry weight at 200°C as extraction temperature. Moreover, the extract obtained at 200°C presented the highest antioxidant activity by far, while temperature does not seem to significatively affect the antimicrobial activity. Chemical composition was determined by HPLC–DAD, HPLC–QqQ-MS and GC–MS. Short chain fatty acids turned out to be responsible of the antimicrobial activity, whereas the antioxidant activity was correlated to vitamin E (present exclusively in the 200°C extract), together with simple phenols, caramelization products and possible Maillard reaction products obtained during the extraction at high temperatures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the present work, a comprehensive methodology to carry out the screening for novel natural functional compounds is presented. To do that, a new strategy has been developed including the use of unexplored natural sources (i.e., algae and microalgae) together with environmentally clean extraction techniques and advanced analytical tools. The developed procedure allows also estimating the functional activities of the different extracts obtained and even more important, to correlate these activities with their particular chemical composition. By applying this methodology it has been possible to carry out the screening for bioactive compounds in the algae Himanthalia elongata and the microalgae Synechocystis sp. Both algae produced active extracts in terms of both antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. The obtained pressurized liquid extracts were chemically characterized by GC–MS and HPLC-DAD. Different fatty acids and volatile compounds with antimicrobial activity were identified, such as phytol, fucosterol, neophytadiene or palmitic, palmitoleic and oleic acids. Based on the results obtained, ethanol was selected as the most appropriate solvent to extract this kind of compounds from the natural sources studied. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Nowadays consumers hold high standards for the foods they consume and they also demand for products that can provide added healthful benefits; two of these products with an observed prebiotic activity, tagatose and lactulose, are the core of our study. These two carbohydrates are ketoses and have important biological activities, such as the stimulation of the growth of beneficial microorganisms in the colon. They are currently produced by alkaline isomerization of the corresponding aldose, followed by several purification steps to remove carbohydrate by-products and the unreacted aldose (around 30%). In this work, the possibility of using supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) technology to fractionate complex carbohydrate mixtures is analyzed. The study is based on previous results obtained for the fractionation of solid binary carbohydrate mixtures such as lactulose–lactose and tagatose–galactose. The appropriate selection of the co-solvent employed, together with the most suitable extraction conditions (including temperature, pressure and co-solvent flow rate) allows the selective extraction of the prebiotic ketose with high selectivity and recovery. The fractionation by SFE of a complex commercial carbohydrate mixture, containing around 74wt.% of lactulose and 24wt.% of different aldose carbohydrates, was carried out at the optimal extraction conditions attained in the study of binary mixtures. The selective extraction of the ketosugar lactulose was also observed in this case, obtaining an extract with 81wt.% lactulose and around 67% yield. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the present work, oregano leaves (Origanum vulgare L.) are explored as natural source of nutraceuticals with antioxidant activity. To do this, subcritical water extraction (SWE), a new environmentally friendly technique, is employed as extraction procedure and HPLC coupled to DAD is used for the chemical characterization of the extracts. Moreover, the radical scavenging 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method and the determination of the total phenolic content (measured with the Folin test) are applied to evaluate the antioxidant activity of the extracts. The extraction of antioxidants from oregano leaves by SWE is studied considering different temperatures (25, 50, 100, 150 and 200°C) to investigate the selectivity of the process. The highest antioxidant activity is observed for the extract obtained at the highest temperature, 200°C (EC50 equal to 10μg/ml). Moreover, the extraction yield was also the highest (54% dry weight) at these extraction conditions. The total phenolic content showed no differences among the different extracts, concluding that the amount of phenolic compounds extracted was similar but the type and structure of the phenolics was different, providing in this way different antioxidant activity. Some compounds could be tentatively identified, proposing some probable chemical structures for some of them, such as flavanones, dihydroflavonols, favonols and flavones. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cell death triggered by photodynamic therapy can occur through different mechanisms: apoptosis, necrosis or autophagy. However, recent studies have demonstrated the existence of other mechanisms with characteristics of both necrosis and apoptosis. These new cell death pathways, collectively termed regulated necrosis, include a variety of processes triggered by different stimuli. In this study, we evaluated the cell death mechanism induced by photodynamic treatments with two photosensitizers, meso-tetrakis (4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin sodium salt (Na-H2TCPP) and its zinc derivative Na-ZnTCPP, in two human breast epithelial cell lines, a non-tumoral (MCF-10A) and a tumoral one (SKBR-3). Viability assays showed that photodynamic treatments with both photosensitizers induced a reduction in cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner and no dark toxicity was observed. The cell death mechanisms triggered were evaluated by several assays and cell line-dependent results were found. Most SKBR-3 cells died by either necrosis or apoptosis. By contrast, in MCF-10A cells, necrotic cells and another cell population with characteristics of both necrosis and apoptosis were predominant. In this latter population, cell death was PARP-dependent and translocation of AIF to the nucleus was observed in some cells. These characteristics are related with parthanatos, being the first evidence of this type of regulated necrosis in the field of photodynamic therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fishing sector constitutes an important source of economic revenue in northern Spain. In this context, various research studies have focused on the application of the five-step Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology to quantify environmental impacts of fishing systems. However, some of them have used environmental indicators that focus on individual environmental issues, hindering the goal of achieving integrated resource management. Therefore, in this study, the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus is employed as an integrative perspective that considers the synergies and trade-offs between carbon footprint, energy requirements, and water demand. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the operational efficiency and environmental impacts of Cantabrian fishing fleets. To this end, the combined use of LCA and DEA, along with the WEF Nexus, was applied to the Cantabrian purse seine fleet. DEA matrices were generated using the LCA-derived WEF nexus values as inputs to calculate efficiency scores for each vessel. Subsequently, based on the efficiency projections provided by the DEA model, a new impact assessment was performed to understand the eco-efficiency and potential environmental benefits of operating at higher levels of efficiency within this fleet. The average efficiency of the fleet was above 60 %. Inefficient units demonstrated a greater potential to reduce their environmental impacts (up to 65 %) by operating according to efficiency projections. Furthermore, the results revealed a strong dependence of environmental impacts on one of the operational inputs, i.e., fuel consumption. These findings highlight the significance of embracing holistic approaches that combine technical, economic, and social factors to achieve a sustainable balance in fisheries systems. In this regard, the five-step LCA + DEA method applied in conjunction with the WEF Nexus emerged as a suitable tool for measuring operational and environmental objectives., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Citrus reticulata L leaves are one of the main post-harvest byproduct, containing bioactive compounds, that are usually undervalued. This work describes the development of a biorefinery process based on the application of supercritical CO 2 (SC-CO 2 ) followed by ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) combined with Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NaDES) to extract bioactive terpenoids and phenolic compounds from these leaves. Extraction temperature and pressure of SC-CO 2 were optimized, obtaining the highest bioactive terpenoids content using 200 bar at 60 °C. A Box-Behnken experimental design showed that 57% of water in NaDES composed of Choline Chloride and Glycerol (1:2) as extraction solvent at 25 °C for 50 min were the optimal UAE-NaDES extraction conditions to obtain the highest bioactive phenolic content from the residue of the optimal SC-CO 2 extraction. The optimum extract presented the highest bioactivity and polyphenol content determined by LC-DAD-MS compared with extracts obtained using only water or NaDES as solvent., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The design of new hydrophobic solvents is essential for replacing the toxic hexane for extracting nonpolar compounds such as fatty acids. On the other hand, the full use of plant matrices seeking to obtain new food and pharmaceutical products from their coproducts has also been the focus of sustainable processes. This study proposed new solvents for replacing hexane to extract fatty acids and hydrophobic bioactive compounds from coproducts obtained from almond- and peanut-based milk processing. The COSMO-RS method was used to select terpene-based mixtures to substitute hexane. Experimentally, four liquid solvents were formed from 1:2 tetradecanol/1,8-cineole (TE/EU), 1:2 camphor/1,8-cineole (CA/EU), 1:1 oleic acid/1,8-cineole (OL/EU), and 1:1 menthol/1,8-cineole (ME/EU). DSC analyses indicated the reduction of the CA/EU, OL/EU, and ME/EU melting points concerning their components. However, the melting point values predicted by the COSMO for obtaining eutectic mixtures differed. CA/EU was the only mixture with a melting point lower than the COSMO-RS-predicted one. In contrast, the FTIR spectra did not provide a clear visualization of the hydrogen bond formation between camphor and 1,8-cineole. This could be due to the formation of weak hydrogen bonds, a phenomenon observed in other studies. Nevertheless, these solvents have the advantage of low viscosity, a promising feature that likely facilitated mass transfer in the extraction of hydrophobic compounds from almond and peanut coproducts. ME/EU provided the same global extraction yield as hexane and higher phytosterol extraction from almond coproducts. On the other hand, CA/EU provided the same global yield and squalene content as hexane from peanut coproducts. The extracts can be directly used in food and pharmaceutical applications since the solvents are usually part of the formulations. However, DSC and TGA-DTA analyses indicated possible ways to separate the solvents., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)