Identifying the sustainability route of asparagus co-product extraction: from waste to bioactive compounds

Rutin is a flavonol glycoside that is found in greater proportion in asparagus stalks. Considering the possibility of valorization of solid waste from the food industry, this research aims to evaluate and compare the environmental profile of the different schemes of rutin asparagus extraction. Specifically, Soxhlet, pressurized liquid and supercritical fluid extractions, all of them using ethanol as the extracting agent. The environmental analysis is conducted according to the Life Cycle Assessment methodology under a mass and economic allocation. The results, under economic allocation, show that the scenario based on pressurized liquid extraction have the best environmental profile. However, when mass allocation is considered, the pressurized liquid-based scenario is the worst choice. Consequently, the choice of the solvents will influence the Soxhlet extraction performance. In this regard, ethanol, methanol and ethyl acetate are selected. The solvent comparison identifies ethyl acetate as the extraction agent with the worst environmental profileThis research has been partially supported by the SENSE project granted by FEDER/Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Spanish National Research Agency (CTQ2016-75136-P) and by the project Enhancing diversity in Mediterranean cereal farming systems (CerealMed) funded by PRIMA Programme and FEDER/Ministry of Science and Innovation – Spanish National Research Agency (PCI2020-111978). B. Santiago thanks to the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for financial support (Grant reference BES-2017-081715). Dr. S. González-Garcia would like to express her gratitude to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for financial support (Grant reference RYC-2014-14984). The authors belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group GRC 2013-032 and to CRETUS Strategic Partnership (AGRUP2015/02). All these programmes are co-funded by Xunta de Galicia and FEDER (EU)S