The global demand for sustainable and non-toxic alternatives across various industries is driving the exploration of naturally derived solutions. Hydrosols, also known as hydrolates, represent a promising yet underutilised byproduct of the extraction process of essential oils (EOs). These aqueous solutions contain a complex mixture of EO traces and water-soluble compounds and exhibit significant biological acti...
Opportunities for the valorisation of agro-industrial residues of the chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) production chain have been fostered with the production of multifunctional polyphenol-rich extracts with the potential to be introduced as natural additives or active components in several products. Nonetheless, it is crucial to explore the feasibility of different extracts from the various by-products for the...
Grape agri-food wastes, such as skin, seeds, and other discarded by-products, contain phytochemical compounds that offer potential health benefits. Methods: This study aimed to investigate the polyphenol composition and bioactivities of different extracts obtained from grape marc and seeds, with the goal of exploring their potential for application as natural food additives. Results: Regardless of the extractio...
The use of natural colorants is needed to overcome consumer concerns regarding synthetic food colorants0 safety. However, natural pigments have, in general, poor stability against environmental stresses such as temperature, ionic strength, moisture, light, and pH, among others. In this work, water-in-oil-in-water (W1/O/W2) emulsions were used as protective carriers to improve color stability of a hydrophilic Sa...
Spray-congealing, a technique based on the fast solidification of sprayed molten lipids, is considered a novel strategy to encapsulate natural products. Among others, it is a safe, low cost, fast and reproducible technique, with rising interest for several applications (e.g. food applications). One of the key parameters for the application of this technique is the lipid solidification temperature, which can be ...
Polyurethanes and polyurethane-ureas, particularly their water-based dispersions, have gained relevance as an extremely versatile area based on environmentally friendly approaches. The evolution of their synthesis methods, and the nature of the reactants (or compounds involved in the process) towards increasingly sustainable pathways, has positioned these dispersions as a relevant and essential product for dive...
Four Portuguese monovarietal olive oils (cvs. Cobrançosa, Madural, Santulhana and Verdeal Transmontana) were evaluated, totalizing 24 independent samples. Olive cultivar significantly influenced (P values lt 0.05, one-way ANOVA) the oils’ physicochemical and sensory attributes, fulfilling all oils the legal thresholds for extra-virgin classification. Oils from cv. Verdeal Transmontana had the highest oxidative ...
Fires in buildings continue to be responsible for high human and economic losses. The increasing demand for legal requirements in the fire safety sector has been complemented by performance criteria of construction products, increasing the requirements of their essential technical characteristics, such as thermal, acoustic, and fire behaviour, as prescribed in the European Construction Products Regulation (CPR)...
In this work, β-carotene was selected to develop a novel study, namely a food colorant system based on beeswax solid lipid particles obtained by hot melt dispersion. The obtained microparticles were characterized by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, particle size analysis and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. It was observed that the obtained size can be modulated by using different amoun...
Microencapsulation procedures have recently focused attention on designing novel mi-crospheres via green synthesis strategies. The use of chitosan (CS) as an encapsulating material has increased interest due to its unique bioactive properties and the various crosslinking possibilities offered by their functional groups. The consolidation of the microspheres by physical crosslinking using sodium tripolyphosphate...