Valorization of the agro-forestry wastes from Italian chestnut cultivars for the recovery of bioactive compounds

Chestnut is a very promising forest species that may be used as biomass to recover high value-added biomolecules. Four cultivars coming from the Italian Park "Roccamonfina-Foce Garigliano" were characterized at biochemical level by phenolic chromatographic profiling and by means of antioxidant activity. The phenolic compounds were extracted from leaves, burs, and shells for all cultivars and the inner shells resulted the richest by-product in all varieties. Comparison of data sets using principal component analysis led to conclusions regarding the biochemical relationships among all cultivars. Furthermore, cluster analysis with HPLC data on the phytochemical compounds produced a dendrogram showing the relationships within Italian cultivars, so confirming the same pattern showed in PCA. In conclusion, high added-value bioactive compounds, utilized as dietary and pharmaceutical supplements, can be achieved from non-edible chestnut components discarded during post-harvest and food processing, so improving the valuable capacity of recycling of chestnut wastes.