Emerging Technologies For The Production Of Nutraceuticals From Agricultural By-products: A Viewpoint Of Opportunities And Challenges

INTRODUCTION
Agricultural by products, considered a source for functional ingredients like antioxidants and dietary fiber nutraceuticals. Production of nutraceuticals from agricultural byproducts:
Process
Macroscopic Pretreatment Macro and Micro molecules separation Extraction Purification

Technology
Wet milling, mechanical pressing, microfiltration Alcohol precipitation, isoelectric solubilization, ultrafiltration Solvent extraction, supercritical fluid extraction Resin adsorption, chromatography, nanofiltration

NEED FOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Conventional technologies have well known scale up technological and scale up boundaries that restrict the efficacy of proposed methodologies and ultimately their commercial implications. Consumers expect high organoleptic standards from the product, at the same time demand accurate delivery and rapid adsorption of the nutraceuticals inside their body.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES: NEW TREND

Proposed advantages of new technologies: Shortening of processing and residence time Accelerated heat and mass transfer Control of maillard reactions Improvement of product quality Enhancement of functionality Protection from environmental stresses Extended preservation

POPULAR EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

1. Radio frequency drying 2. Electro- osmotic dewatering 3. Low temperature plasma treatment 4. High hydrostatic pressure 5. Ultrasound assisted extraction 6. Laser ablation 7. High voltage electrical discharge 8. Pulsed electric field 9. Pulsed fluid bed agglomeration 10.Nanotechnology

RADIO FREQUENCY DRYING

Evaporates water at relatively low temperatures (less than 80C) by combining mechanisms of dipole rotation and conduction effects which accelerate and heat uniformly the wet material. ADVANTAGES: - Optimizes heat transfer compared to conventional drying - Reduced processing time & floor space production requirements - Run as both batch and continuous process CHALLENGE: - product specific application

ELECTRO-OSMOTIC DEWATERING
Alternate drying technique Based on osmotic dehydration principles and enhanced mass transfer, induced by mechanical pressure with electrochemical double layers formed at particle water interface of colloidal aqueous suspensions. ADVANTAGES - Reduced energy consumption CHALLENGE - Difficult to remove water from highly viscous material

HIGH HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE

Uses pressure up to 200MPa ADVANTAGES - Sterilization and enzyme deactivation - Produces non damaged, fresh tasting, safer and long shelf life products - Found more applications: gelation of sarcoplasmic proteins; modification of whey protein concentrate hydrophobicity; solubilization of dietary fibres; extraction of anthocyanins from grape by products CHALLENGE - reduce initial capital cost

ULTRASOUND ASSISTED EXTRACTION

Utilizes phenomenon of cavitation caused by ultrasound waves ADVANTAGES/ APPLICATIONS - enhanced extraction of anythocyanins & beta carotene , phenolic compounds CHALLENGES - establish control parameters and conditions regarding energy, probe types and sample volumes

HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTRIC DISCHARGE

Liquid substrate is placed in a chamber between two electrodes that cause particle fragmentation APPLICATIONS/ ADVANTAGE - recovery of micromolecules from grape seed extracts - reduced time - increased efficacy CHALLENGES - high capital cost - energy consumption

PULSED ELECTRIC FIELDS

Employs the subjection of critical electric potential across the cell membranes ADVANTAGES - can be combined with ultrasound waves to have pulsed ultrasound assisted extraction - increased yield - also accelerated agglomeration can be carried out after application of pulsed electric fields. - has found applications in whey protein isolates, soy protein isolates. CHALLENGE - decrease energy requirements

NANOEMULSION
Modern encapsulation in terms of forming nanomaterials like nanoemulsions. ADVANTAGE -Production of multiphase colloidal droplets of 10-100nm ensures physical stability and increased bioavailability of final product - Can be combined with other technologies like ultrasound to improve the efficiency CHALLENGE - Safety of final product in terms of cell membrane permeability and their effect on biological matrices

CONCLUSION
Despite the fact that it seems that we are far away from this point, the market and consumers demand for tailored made processes and products, respectively, will lead food manufacturers to adapt sooner or later the aforementioned technologies. Further research on the field would supply technical feedback to reduce capital and operation cost, and set up minimal processing. Safety assessments, application route, flavor and taste impact as well as consumer acceptance are the challenges that should be addressed next in order to take the emerging technologies closer to a commercial breakthrough in the field.