Phenolic compounds, one of the most widely distributed and structural diverse plant secondary metabolites families, have been the focus of several studies due to their vast range of biological activities (such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and/or antiproliferative). Since they are commonly present in human diet, phenolic compounds could be responsible for human health beneficial effects, preventing some dis...
The development of innovative bio-based skin care products has received an increase attention in the latter years. In the present work, the synthesis of original active principle ingredients based ionic liquids (ILs) with cholinium cation and vitamins B anions followed by their incorporation in bacterial nanocellulose (BC) membranes for topical applications is reported. Three ILs, namely cholinium nicotinate [C...
The development of innovative bio-based skin care products has received an increased attention in the latter years. In the present work, the synthesis of original active principle ingredients based on ionic liquids (ILs) with cholinium cation and vitamins B anions, followed by their incorporation in bacterial nanocellulose (BC) membranes for topical applications, is reported. Three ILs, namely choliniumnicotina...
The synthesis and characterisation of a novel family of unsaturated polyesters (UPs) and their crosslinked resins (UPRs) based on 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) are reported. Their original features stem from the use of FDCA as the aromatic monomer, and also from the fact that UPs are entirely based on renewable resources, oppositely to most reported materials which are typically based on petrochemicals or i...
SFE curves of Eichhornia crassipes are measured for different pressure (200, 250, and 300 bar), ethanol content (0 and 5 wt.%), and CO2 flow rate (5.0, 7.5 and 10.0 g min(-1)) conditions, and studied in terms of total (eta(total)) and stigmasterol (eta(stigm)) extraction yields. Ethanol addition was able to increase total yield up to 60% within the 6 h of extraction, reaching up to eta(total) = 1.25 (wt.%). For...
Lipophilic constituents (triterpenoids, fatty acids, fatty alcohols, and sterols) from the berries of the three major Sambucus nigra L. cultivars grown in Portugal ('Sabugueira', 'Sabugueiro', and 'Bastardeira') were characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Triterpenoids were the most abundant constituents, accounting for up to 92% of the lipophilic extract in all studied cultivars. Our preliminar...
The supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of Eucalyptus globulus deciduous bark is investigated, under the context of biorefinery, aiming at the definition of a pathway for the production of enriched extracts in triterpenic acids (TTAs). Scale-up studies are performed, well supported by modeling and by experiments carried out at lab, intermediate and pilot scales (0.5, 5.0 and 80.0 L, respectively). By acknowled...