Development of an aqueous ultrasound-assisted extraction process of bioactive compounds from beet leaves: A proposal for reducing losses and increasing biomass utilisation

NUTTER, J; FERNANDEZ, M.V.; JAGUS, R.J.; AGÜERO, M.V.

JOURNAL OF THE SCIENCE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD

Lugar: LOndres; Año: 2020

0022-5142

BACKGROUND: Red beet plants are cultivated worldwide for the consumption of theirroots, generating large amounts of unexploited by-products. In particular, beet leaves(BL) represent about 50% of the whole plant and are usually discarded as waste. Thisconstitutes not only an economic issue, since multiple resources invested in theproduction will be wasted, but also an environmental problem because of the pollutionassociated with their disposal. However, BL comprise an important source of functionalcompounds (polyphenols and betalains) that could be recovered from the raw material,representing a sustainable solution for the underutilisation of this by-product. This studyproposes the recovery of polyphenols and betalains using an aqueous ultrasoundassisted extraction (UAE) process at different powers (35, 50, and 100 W) that wascharacterised and optimised.RESULTS: UAE significantly enhanced the recovery of bioactive compounds andshortened the time required for extraction in comparison to traditional macerations(35