Recupero di nutraceutici da sottoprodotti dell’industria enologica mediante impiego di acqua allo stato subcritico

Wine industry represents one of the most important sector of the food industry and among the various byproducts grape seeds are of noticeably value because of their content in oil (14% b.w.), rich in linolenic acid and tocols, and also in polyphenols (58% b.w.). Actually, because of the polyphenols content, grape seeds extracts are sold with success as nutraceuticals, due to the wide spectrum of positive biological activities. However, the recovery of these moieties is nowadays based on the use of organic solvents, potentially harmful both for humans and the environment. In fact the technology requires an initial deoiling step with hexane, followed by extraction with a water/ethanol mixture.In this work the grape seed deoling procedure has been optimized by using supercritical CO2, while the recovery of the phenolic fraction has been investigated by using sub-critical water.