Natural compounds represent an extremely wide category to be exploited, in order to develop new pharmaceutical strategies. In this framework, the number of in vitro, in vivo and clinical trials investigating the therapeutic potential of curcumin is exponentially increasing, due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties. The possibility to obtain this molecule by both chemical synthesis and extraction from natural sources makes the environmental assessments of these alternative production processes of paramount importance from a green chemistry perspective, with the aim, for both industries and academia, to pursue a more sustainable development. The present work reports detailed and quantitative environmental assessments of three different curcumin production strategies: synthesis, conventional Soxhlet-based extraction (CE) and microwave-assisted extraction (MAE). The chemical synthesis of curcumin, as recently optimized by the authors, has been firstly evaluated by using the EATOS software followed by a complete “cradle to the grave” study, realized by applying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The life cycles of CE and MAE were then similarly assessed, considering also the cultivation of Curcuma longa L., the production of the dried rhizomes as well as their commercialization, in order to firstly investigate the widely claimed green character of MAE with respect to more conventional extraction procedures. Secondly, the results related to the two different extraction strategies were compared to those obtained by the chemical synthesis of curcumin, with the aim to determine its greenest preparation procedure among those investigated. This work represents the first example of an environmental assessment comparison between different production strategies of curcumin, thus smoothing the way towards the highly desirable establishment of environmentally friendly rankings, comprising all the existing alternatives to the chemical synthesis of a target chemical compound

No abstract

This research investigates the environmental performance of two products obtained\ud using slag derived from copper primary production (copper slags, CS). The first is a tile\ud produced as a traditional stoneware ceramic plate (CS tile) and the second product is a\ud glass-ceramic sample obtained by melt quenching method (CS bulk sample). The\ud products are intended for use in industrial plants as auxiliary heating elements aimed\ud at absorbing microwave.\ud Methods\ud The environmental assessment was carried out using LCA methodology and the\ud obtained outcomes were compared to the results calculated for a traditional tile\ud containing silicon carbide (SiC tile).\ud Results\ud The analyses show that the innovative products have an environmental load of 74% for\ud the CS tile and 54% for the CS bulk sample lower than the environmental impact\ud calculated for the traditional SiC-based material tile. The latter presents a high\ud environmental load due to the incidence on the total impact of the raw materials\ud production. In fact, LCA analysis proves that copper slags production has an impact of\ud 96% lower with respect the SiC production.\ud Conclusions\ud This study identifies a possible waste reduction strategy in accordance with the\ud European end-of-waste criteria, but these results should be supported by a site\ud analysis in order to provide an appropriate context for decision making