Ionic liquid-mediated recovery of carotenoids from the bactris gasipaes fruit waste and their application in food-packaging chitosan films

In this work, a process for the extraction and purification of carotenoids from the fruit Bactris gasipaes was developed. Ethanolic and aqueous solutions of ionic liquids (ILs) and surfactants were evaluated on the extraction of these pigments. Thus, we developed an optimized sustainable downstream process mediated by the best solvent with further isolation of the carotenoids and the recyclability of the IL used. The process was characterized not only in terms of efficiency but also regarding its environmental impact. The recyclability of the solvents as well as the high efficiency (maximum yield of extraction of carotenoids = 88.7 ± 0.9 μgcarotenoids·gdried biomass–1) and the low environmental impact of the integrated process developed in this work were demonstrated. In the end, in order to incorporate functional activity for an alternative food-packaging material, carotenoids were successfully applied on the preparation of chitosan-based films with excellent results regarding their mechanical parameters and antioxidant activity.publishe

Continuous separation of cytochrome-c PEGylated conjugates by fast centrifugal partition chromatography

Herein, the effective use of aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) in Fast Centrifugal Partition Chromatography (FCPC) for the purification of PEGylated cytochrome c conjugates is shown. High recoveries (between 88% and 100%) and purities (∼100%) were obtained. Both the unreacted cytochrome c and solvents may be recovered and reused, thus allowing the design of a sustainable process in a continuous regime for the isolation of bioconjugates. This process allowed the reduction of the complete E-factor and carbon footprint at circa 100% and 67%, respectively, reinforcing the important environmental contribution of recycling units.publishe