The Eurecat technology centre has demonstrated the photoprotective and anti-inflammatory potential of polyphenol-rich extracts from agricultural by-products such as chicory leaves, red onion skins, vine prunings and olive prunings, proving their effectiveness in three-dimensional in vitro models equivalent to human skin exposed to UV-B radiation in a paper recently published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Research.
As part of the European Phenolexa project, which targets revalorisation of agricultural by-products, the effects of four polyphenolic extracts from agricultural waste on various skin health parameters, including collagen metabolism, inflammation and prevention of structural damage to cells when exposed to ultraviolet rays, have been analysed.
All the extracts “significantly reduced the presence of burnt skin cells by between 48 and 68 per cent, two of them exerted an exciting modulation of extracellular matrix components, and one of these also showed an anti-inflammatory effect,” comments Joan Teichenné, a researcher in Eurecat’s Nutrition and Health Unit. Specifically, “red onion skin and vine pruning extracts increased the expression of genes related to collagen synthesis, while vine pruning extract also demonstrated the ability to significantly reduce the gene expression of a key protein in inflammatory processes,” adds Dr Roger Mariné, also a researcher in Eurecat’s Nutrition and Health Unit.
The research tapped advanced extraction technologies with green, sustainable and environmentally-friendly solvents. The extracts were also tested in advanced in vitro 3D human skin models, an innovative and physiologically relevant system which allows for evaluations more closely aligned with human conditions while lessening reliance on animal testing in research.
This “is the first study to combine a green extraction technique, subcritical water extraction, with a three-dimensional model of human skin mimicking its layers,” explains Dr Xavier Escoté, a collaborator at Eurecat’s Nutrition and Health Unit and lecturer at Rovira i Virgili University. “This is a step forward in developing sustainable cosmetic bioactives with potential applications in photoprotection, anti-ageing and revalorising agri-food waste through the circular economy.”
“The research paves the way for potential applications of residual biomass from agricultural processes for sustainable reuse in sectors such as cosmetics and food to improve people’s health and well-being,” comments Sara Gómez, director of Eurecat’s Nutrition and Health Unit.
“This study demonstrates Eurecat’s commitment to capacity building and using alternatives to animal testing, evolving from simple single-cell systems to increasingly complex models which more accurately reproduce the behaviour of human organs,” adds Antoni Caimari, Director of Eurecat’s Biotechnology Area. “This enables us to stay at the forefront in nutrition and health, offering robust alternatives to the use of animals to evaluate the functionality of ingredients, nutraceuticals and other bioactive compounds.”
The Phenolexa project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, is a European initiative based on processing various types of agricultural waste to produce a suite of novel functional polyphenolic bioactives with beneficial properties for human health. Eurecat’s Nutrition and Health Unit has also demonstrated the antiviral potential of some of these extracts in another scientific paper just published in the journal Molecules.
The project consortium, led by CIVITTA, is made up of 12 partners from several European countries: Novatica Technologies, the Italian National Research Council (CNR), the CARTIF Technology Centre, Celabor, the Nicolaus Copernicus University of Torun (Poland), the University of Loughborough in the United Kingdom, Bionigree, the EPC-Project Corporation Climate association, the Regional Chamber of Agriculture of Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur and Carinsa.
