Vegetable wastes as source of bioactive compounds

Vegetable biomass is one of the most promising renewable source of energy and chemicals. Indeed, its exploitation for biofuels and chemicals production has been the focus of research over the last years since the gradual shift toward the so-called bio-based economy (an economy system based on exploitation of renewable resources), has determined a global increasing demand for goods mainly derived from vegetable biomass. According to this global scenario, the possible exploitation of the residual biomass coming from the industrial processing of lemon (Citrus limon), tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum var. ''Hybrid Rome''), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare var. dulce) and carrot (Dacus carota), were studied. This work highlighted the biorefining approach for the re-use of such bio-agro-wastes that have been used as sources of two kinds of value added-products i.e polysaccharides and polyphenols whose biotechnological properties and biological activities were investigated.