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Essential oils and quality composts sourced by recycling vegetable residues from the aromatic plant supply chain
- Source :
- Industrial Crops and Products. 162:113255
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2021.
-
Abstract
- In the last few years, the aromatic plant market for fresh consumption has been growing, especially packaged herbs for Mass Market Retailers. Pruning and selection of aromatic plants during packaging leads to the accumulation of a large amounts of plant residues with consequent disposal costs. In a circular economy perspective, the aim of this study was to recover residues of three aromatic plants (Ocimum basilicum L., Rosmarinus officinalis L. and Salvia officinalis L.) by extracting essential oil and aromatic water and, subsequently, reusing oil-free biomasses for composting. In fact, these by-products are currently considered very interesting and sustainable. The essential oils are natural products that have a wide range of biological activities useful for pharmaceutical, medical, veterinary and agriculture innovative purposes. Hydrolates have a much softer scent than the corresponding essential oils. The compost can be successfully applied for the restoration and maintenance of soil fertility. Results of this study showed that yields of essential oils obtained from plant residues, were sufficiently higher, especially for sage and rosemary, also if they were collected well far from plant balsamic period. Analysis of composition of essential oils confirmed the presence of characteristic compounds for each species. The aromatic waters were found to be an easily usable product due to the favourable physicochemical characteristics and, in particular, the aromatic waters of basil showed high antioxidant activity. About compost, the main physicochemical (humidity, pH, electrical conductivity) and biological (basal respiration and hydrolase activity) properties, were considered. Phytotoxicity tests indicated that composts derived from the three species can be used in agriculture. This research demonstrates that it is possible to eliminate completely plant residues and recover new products from aromatic species, supporting the effectiveness of an eco-friendly model to recover and reuse all fresh aromatic plant residues.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
food.ingredient
engineering.material
01 natural sciences
Aromatic water
Essential oil
Rosmarinus
law.invention
food
Aromatic plants
law
Eco-friendly model
biology
010405 organic chemistry
Compost
fungi
Basilicum
food and beverages
Ocimum
biology.organism_classification
Pulp and paper industry
0104 chemical sciences
engineering
Residues recover
Environmental science
Phytotoxicity
Soil fertility
Agronomy and Crop Science
Pruning
010606 plant biology & botany
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 09266690
- Volume :
- 162
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Industrial Crops and Products
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....ab442ee815023f69520768402321df93