Tiziana Fornari

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid | UAM

High-pressure homogenization (HPH) is an emerging technology for obtaining physical and microbial stability of plant-based milks, but there is little information on the effects of this technology on the phytochemical components of the processed plant food beverage and during its cold storage. The effect of three selected HPH treatments (180 MPa/25...

Reversible and sub-lethal stresses to the mitochondria elicit a program of compensatory responses that ultimately improve mitochondrial function, a conserved anti-aging mechanism termed mitohormesis. Here, we show that harmol, a member of the beta-carbolines family with anti-depressant properties, improves mitochondrial function and metabolic param...

Synsepalum dulcificum (Richardella dulcifica) is a berry fruit from West Africa with the ability to convert the sour taste into a sweet taste, and for this reason, the fruit is also known as the “miracle berry” (MB). The red and bright berry is rich in terpenoids. The fruit’s pulp and skin contain mainly phenolic compounds and flavonoids, which cor...

The interrelation effect of slaughtering, drying, and defatting methods of BSFL on the oxidative quality of the derived fat was studied. Blanching and freezing were compared as slaughtering methods, followed by oven or freeze-drying for drying and mechanical pressing or SFE for defatting. The oxidative state and stability of the extracted fat and d...

Borututu (Cochlospermum angolense Welw.) roots have been described as a rich source of phenolic compounds. Despite the potential of this plant for the production of bioactive extracts, studies reported until now have been scarce, and they have been based on the use of inefficient conventional extraction techniques. In this study, pressurized liquid...

The effect of high-pressure homogenization (HPH) on the inactivation of Escherichia coli and the stability of the quality properties of Brazil nut beverages were studied. E. coli was used as target microorganism to validate the HPH process (pressures from 50 to 180 MPa and inlet temperatures (Ti) from 25 to 75 °C). Cold storage (5 °C) for 21 days w...

The supercritical defatting of H. illucens was scaled up at 450 bar and 60 °C from a 270 cm3 extraction cell to a vessel five times larger. Then, eight different H. illucens larvae batches, with variable content of oil (16.80–29.17% w/w) and moisture (4.45–15.95% w/w) were defatted. The effect of these parameters on yield and oil composition was an...

The skins of nuts represent an important source of fiber and phenolic compounds with diverse bioactive properties such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective [1]. Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa HBK) is a nut native of the Amazon rainforest with large industrial production in Brazil, Bolivia and Peru, which in turn gen...

The mealworm (Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus 1758) is gaining importance as one of the most popular edible insects. Studies focusing on its bioactivities are increasing, although alternative forms of consumption other than the whole insect or flour, such as bioactive non-protein extracts, remain underexplored. Furthermore, the incidence of metabolic syn...

Edible insects are gaining attention as a source of bioactive compounds of great interest for health. To produce bioactive extracts from insects with a high concentration of bioactive compounds, defatting seems to be relevant for those fat-rich forms of insects as larvae. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) might be useful for both the defatting a...

This work presents the novel method named BIOSAS to formulate homogenous dispersions of bioactive substances in an oily matrix. The method is based on the carbon dioxide supercritical antisolvent (SAS) technique to produce small drops of a solution containing the bioactive substances, in the presence of a lipid substance. Ethanolic and aqueous solu...

The consumption of plant-based beverages is a growing trend and, consequently, the search for alternative plant sources, the improvement of beverage quality and the use of their by-products, acquire great interest. Thus, the purpose of this work was to characterize the composition (nutrients, phytochemicals and antioxidant activity) of the Brazil n...

The production of specific insect extracts with bioactive properties for human health is an emerging and innovative field for the edible insects industry, but there are unexplored extraction factors that might modulate the bioactivity of the extracts. Ultrasound-assisted extracts from T. molitor and H. illucens were produced. Effects of defatting p...

Melissa officinalis L. and Origanum majorana L., within Lamiaceae family, and Calendula officinalis L. and Achillea millefolium L., within the Asteraceae, have been considered a good source of bioactive ingredients with health benefits. In this study, the supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) using pure CO2, and the ultrasound assisted extraction (U...

Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction (SC-CO2) was performed to recover the lipid fraction of the cake by-product from Brazil nut beverage (BNM) production. Extraction kinetics and the effect of pressure and temperature on the yield, oil recovery, fatty acid (FA) profile and minor lipid compounds were evaluated. The modeling of the kinetic assays...

Plant extracts are being studied in the development of novel edible food coatings. The antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds that naturally occur in some plants are the key substances that contribute to preserving food quality. Besides the plant material, the method utilized to produce the extract influences its chemical and preservative characte...

Several plant extracts are being investigated to produce edible coatings, mainly due to their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. In this study, licorice root extracts were produced by ultrasound-assisted extraction and were combined with chitosan to elaborate edible coatings. Different solvents and temperatures were used in the extraction pr...

Although triacylglycerols (TAG) are the major constituents of chia oil, it also contains minor lipid fractions that include phospholipids (PL) among other desirable components. Its amphiphilic character and excellent biocompatibility make PL appropriate for numerous applications with technological and nutritional significanceand potential health be...

Supercritical anti-solvent precipitation (SAS) using carbon dioxide is a novel technique that can be used to produce powdered ingredients in small size particles, facilitating their incorporation into food matrices. In this work, the SAS precipitation of a licorice root ethanolic extract was studied. SAS assays were carried out at 15–20 MPa, 308.15...

The kinetics of the supercritical fluid extraction of edible and discarded chia seeds was studied and modelled for the first time. The total oil was removed at 45 MPa and 60 °C after 240 min. The extraction kinetics was simulated using a dynamic model in gPROMS ModelBuilder environment and the kinetic parameters estimated. Triolein was chosen as a...

The recent development of powerful “omics” technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics) has opened new avenues in nutritional sciences toward precision nutrition, which is a genotype-directed nutrition that takes into account the differential responses to nutritional interventions based on gene variation (nutri...

Nowadays, obesity and its associated metabolic disorders, including diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, or cancer, continue to be a health epidemic in westernized societies, and there is an increased necessity to explore anti-obesity therapies including pharmaceutical and nutraceutical compounds. Considerable attention has been pl...

The simultaneous fractionation and precipitation of an ethanolic extract of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) using supercritical carbon dioxide anti-solvent technique was studied, with the target of separate in two different fractions the key antioxidants of rosemary (i.e. rosmarinic acid, carnosic acid and carnosol). The effect of pressure and...

Heather (Calluna vulgaris L.) and marigold (Calendula officinalis L.) are two rich sources of bioactive pentacyclic triterpenes. The supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) extraction of these two plants was explored at a pressure range of 25–50 MPa, 50 °C, with or without fractionation, different extraction times (1.5–4.0 h) and using ethanol as a co...

BACKGROUND Typical hydrolysis times of saponins without considering the effect of time on the degradation of the targeted compounds, namely sapogenins, are generally assumed. When producing natural extracts, it should be considered that the performance of hydrolysis to yield a target compound might also affect the final composition of the extracts...

Metabolic reprogramming is considered a hallmark of cancer. Currently, the altered lipid metabolism in cancer is a topic of interest due to the prominent role of lipids regulating the progression of various types of tumors. Lipids and lipid-derived molecules have been shown to activate growth regulatory pathways and to promote malignancy in pancrea...

Ethanol extracts (EE) from fenugreek and quinoa seeds with different total content of inhibitory compounds (TIC, total saponin plus phenolic) were prepared with and without concentration of TIC (CEE –concentrated EE-, and EE, respectively). Their inhibitory activity on pancreatic lipase and α-amylase was assessed by traditional in vitro methods (wi...

Chia seeds constitute a promising source of α-linolenic acid (ALA). In the present work, an underutilized and cheaper set of chia seeds, which were discarded after the harvest according to quality criteria - named in this work as low oil content seeds (LOCS) - have been evaluated as a potential source for obtaining PUFA-enriched oils against the co...

Background: Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and mortal cancers. Although several drugs have been proposed for its treatment, it remains resistant and new alternatives are needed. In this context, plants and their derivatives constitute a relevant source of bioactive components which might efficiently inhibit tumor cell progression....

The efficient production of saponin-rich extracts is of increasing interest due to the bioactive properties that have being demonstrated for these compounds. However, saponins have a poor bioavailability. In this respect, the knowledge about the bioaccessibility of saponins as a first step before bioavailability has been scarcely explored. In this...

El comportamiento cinético de la extracción con fluidos supercríticos (SFE) de materiales vegetales en lecho fijo se suele representar mediante un gráfico de la masa extraída en función del tiempo o de la masa de disolvente, llamado curva de extracción (OEC, Overall Extraction Curve). El escalado en un proceso de SFE busca reproducir la misma OEC e...

The supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of vegetal raw materials is a large field of research, innovation and entrepreneurial developments. Optimization of process conditions is usually accomplished in analytical or laboratory scale equipment. Although SFE scaling is essential to attain industrial applications, studies in the literature are scarce...

The human gastrointestinal tract harbours the most complex and abundant community of the human body, the colon being where the highest microbial concentration is found (1012 cell/g). The intestinal microbiota exerts metabolic, trophic and protective functions which are important in the maintenance of the host health. Over recent decades, numerous s...

The extraction of marigold (Calendula officinalis) oleoresin with supercritical carbon dioxide SCCO2 was carried out in a small scale extraction vessel (2.7×10-4 m3) studying different extraction pressures (14, 24 and 34 MPa) and different flow rates (15, 30 and 45 g·min-1) at 313 K. Then, using semi-empirical engineering scaling criterions (consta...

Vaccinium meridionale Swartz (mortiño) constitute a source of bioactive phytochemicals, but the studies related to its efficient and green production is scarce. Pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) and ultrasound assisted extraction were compared for mortiño extraction. Total phenolic compounds (TPC) and antioxidant capacity (ABTS•+) were determined...

Cancer is among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Many of the chemotherapeutic agents used in cancer treatment exhibit cell toxicity and display teratogenic effect on nontumor cells. Therefore, the search for alternative compounds which are effective against tumor cells but reduce toxicity against nontumor ones is of great im...

The digestion, absorption, uptake and bioavailability of a rosemary supercritical fluid extract encapsulated in oil in water emulsion were studied. Two emulsions with opposite surface charge were prepared, containing 7% canola oil, and either 2% lactoferrin or whey protein isolate. When absorption and uptake of carnosic acid and carnosol were follo...

Asteraceae (Achillea millefolium and Calendula officinalis) and Lamiaceae (Melissa officinalis and Origanum majorana) extracts were obtained by applying two sequential extraction processes: supercritical fluid extraction with carbon dioxide, followed by ultrasonic assisted extraction using green solvents (ethanol and ethanol:water 50:50). The extra...

Background Green tea and its decaffeinated products are foodstuffs which involve a great commercial market due to their interesting healthy properties. Catechins are the main phenolic compounds in tea leaves and these are receiving considerable interest due to their potential benefits on human health. In this sense, many studies have been performed...

Calendula officinalis (marigold) is an edible plant with bioactive compounds of current interest. Triterpenoids, as pentacyclic triterpenes (PT), have been described as one of the main responsible for the biological activities of marigold. In fact, the interest on PT from natural sources as potential bioactive ingredients is increasing. However, it...

Supercritical extracts of marigold (ME) were produced and characterized. The bioaccessibility of terpenes, especially that of pentacyclic triterpenes (PT), the particle-size distribution and antioxidant activity after the in vitro co-digestion of ME with olive oil (OO), were determined. ME produced without co-solvent was richer in taraxasterol, lup...

Achillea millefolium L. (yarrow) from Bulgaria was extracted in a supercritical pilot-scale plant using carbon dioxide (CO2). First, the extraction yield was studied as a function of time at 14 MPa, 40 °C and 70 g/min of CO2. Then, the extraction time was set in order to study the effect of different process parameters (pressure, temperature, CO2 f...

In this work the fractionation of an ethanolic extract of Achillea millefolium L. (yarrow) using supercritical carbon dioxide anti-solvent technique was studied, with the target of increasing the concentration of phenolic compounds in the precipitated fraction. The effect of pressure on the selective precipitation was analyzed, together with the mo...

Vaccinium meridionale Swartz (Mortiño or Colombian blueberry) is one of the Vaccinium species abundantly found across the Colombian mountains, which are characterized by high contents of polyphenolic compounds (anthocyanins and flavonoids). The supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of Vaccinium species has mainly focused on the study of V. myrtillus...

The solubility of ferulic acid in ethyl lactate + water mixtures was measured at ambient temperature and pressure, and reported for the first time in this work. It was demonstrated that the acid solubility in the respective mixed solvents was considerably higher than in either pure ethyl lactate or water. Similar behavior pattern was recently repor...

Supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) extraction is an innovative and efficient method to recover valued substances from vegetal materials. The diffusion behavior of the extract in the supercritical solvent is an important parameter to understand the mass transfer behavior of the process. In this work, experimental data from the literature were util...

Supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) extraction is an innovative and efficient method to recuperate lipophilic substances from vegetal materials. The diffusion coefficient of the solutes in the supercritical solvent is an important parameter to interpret the mass transfer behavior of the process [1]. Several correlations are available in the liter...

Rosmarinus officinalis L. is an aromatic plant with components known to confer health-promoting properties. The present study aimed to enhance the bioavailability of the main compounds, carnosic acid and carnosol, by encapsulation. The rosemary extracts were obtained by supercritical fluid extraction, and then different delivery systems were tested...

This paper reports experimental data to analyze the effect of different green cosolvents, namely ethyl lactate, ethyl acetate and ethanol, on the supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) extraction of caffeine from green tea leaves. The experiments were carried out in a pilot-scale plant using two different approaches: a static procedure in which the c...

Ethyl-lactate (ethyl 2-hydroxy-propanoate) is a bio-renewable agrochemical solvent, very suitable and environmental benign for food applications, permitted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as pharmaceutical and food additive. In previous work, the authors demonstrated that pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) using ethyl lactate is a suitabl...

This paper reports a method to produce a solvent-free extract from green tea leaves with high content of catechins and low content of caffeine, in two steps and using only "green" solvents. The method is based on the pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) of the green tea leaves using ethyl lactate as solvent, followed by a selective precipitation pro...

BACKGROUND In this work three different techniques were applied to extract dry leaves of spinach (Spinacia oleracea): solid-liquid extraction (SLE), pressurised liquid extraction (PLE) and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) to investigate the influence of extraction solvent and technique on extracts composition and antioxidant activity. Moreover,...

The in vitro anti-inflammatory activity of supercritical rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) extracts (rosemary A and B) is been reported in this study. To achieve that, THP-1 macrophages were activated using lipopolysaccharide or human ox-LDL and secretion and gene expression of TNF-a, IL-1b, IL-6 and IL-10 were evaluated, as well as COX-2 gene e...

Knowledge of phase equilibria behaviour of food substances and green solvents under high pressure conditions is required to exploit to the full the advantages of high pressure fluid technology for green food processing. Data are currently available for quite a large number of systems at a wide range of conditions; still experimental measurement of...

Previous studies using lipid extracts of heather (Calluna vulgaris) leaves showed the presence of high concentrations of ursolic and oleanolic acid. These two compounds have been reported to present antiviral activity against hepatitis C virus (HCV). In this work, the supercritical fluid extraction of heather was studied with the aim of assessing a...

The aim of this book is to present the fundamentals of high pressure technologies from the perspective of mass transfer phenomena and thermodynamic considerations. Novel food applications are exposed and their relation to chemical analysis, extraction, reaction and particle formation processes are outlined. The chapters are written by a diverse gro...

Thymol (2-isopropyl-5-methylphenol) is the main monoterpene phenol found in thyme essential oil. This compound has revealed several biological properties, such as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant. In this work, a comparison was made between the performance of different green solvents (ethanol, limonene and ethyl lactate), by pressu...

Betulinic acid (3β, hydroxy-lup-20(29)-en-28-oic acid) is a bioactive triterpenic acid which was identified in various botanical sources and in considerable amounts in the bark of plane tree (Platanus acerifolia L.). In this work, the recovery of betulinic acid from plane tree bark was studied using different LIQUID solvent based extraction methods...

Betulinic acid (3β, hydroxy-lup-20(29)-en-28-oic acid) is a triterpenic acid which can be isolated from various botanical sources, including clove, rosemary, java tea, and the bark of several betula species (birch trees) [1]. Betulinic acid as well as its derivatives, have demonstrated a wide range of biological activities, including anti HIV-1 act...

Colorectal and pancreatic cancers remain important contributors to cancer mortality burden and, therefore, new therapeutic approaches are urgently needed. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) extracts and its components have been reported as natural potent antiproliferative agents against cancer cells. However, to potentially apply rosemary as a co...