Processamento de agrião para recuperação de compostos bioactivos com aplicação na indústria dos nutracêuticos

Mestrado em Engenharia Alimentar - Instituto Superior de AgronomiaThe consumption of vegetables is widely recognized to be beneficial to human health and this is mainly attributed to their high content in functional constituents. The aim of this work was to develop a green extractin process of watercress for the recovery of bioactive compounds with application in the nutraceutical industry. Initially the matrix was characterized with respect to its content of polyphenols, terpenes and carotenoids. A Design of Experiments (DOE) was used to plan the extractions using two solutions water: co-solvent GRAS (water:ethanol and water:propylene glycol,) varying the extraction temperature, the ratio matrix:solvente and ratio water:cosolvent, in order to improve their content of polyphenols, carotenoids, and terpenes (spectrophotometric and chromatographic methods), their antioxidant activity and their cosmeceutical potential. The most promising extract, considering the content of polyphenols and the antioxidant activity, was PG 13. Regarding the cosmeceutical potential, TT / EtOH5 have proved to be more auspicious for antipigmentation activity and H2O7 proved to be more favorable on anti-wrinkle assay. Watercress reveled to be a promising natural source of numerous phytochemicals, namely polyphenols, terpenes, isothiocyanates and fatty acids, rich in antioxidant activity, advantageous for the development of functional products and with potential to be included in cosmeceutical