Evaluation of Fatty Acids Profile as a Useful Tool towards Valorization of By-Products of Agri-Food Industry

Abstract

Worldwide, the food industry generates a large number of by-products from a wide variety of sources. These by-products represent an interesting and economical source of added value components with potential functionalities and/or bioactivities, which might be explored for industrial purposes, encouraging and promoting the circular economy concept. In this context, the current work aimed to evaluate the fatty acids (FAs) profile using gas chromatography–flame ionization detector (GC–FID) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), as well as the determination of related health lipid indices (e.g., atherogenic (AI) and thrombogenic (TI)) as a powerful strategy to investigate the potential applications of different agri-food by-products for human nutrition and animal feeding. This work results showed that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are the predominant group in grape pomace (72.7%), grape bunches (54.3%), and brewer’s spent grain (BSG, 59.0%), whereas carrot peels are dominated by monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs, 47.3%), and grape stems (46.2%), lees (from 50.8 to 74.1%), and potato peels (77.2%) by saturated fatty acids (SFAs). These findings represent a scientific basis for exploring the nutritional properties of agri-food by-products. Special attention should be given to grape pomace, grape bunches, and BSG since they have a high content of PUFAs (from 54.3 to 72.7%) and lower AI (from 0.11 to 0.38) and TI (from 0.30 to 0.56) indexes, suggesting their potential to provide a variety of health benefits against cardiovascular diseases including well-established hypotriglyceridemia and anti-inflammatory effects, products to which they are added.

Kinetic and Stoichiometric Modeling-Based Analysis of Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) Production Potential by Crypthecodinium cohnii from Glycerol, Glucose and Ethanol

“…FTIR was chosen as a rapid analytical method, requiring a small sample size and no complex pretreatment steps. The validity of infrared spectroscopy to estimate the content of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids has been reported previously [22][23][24]. Yoshida and Yoshida [25] evaluated the FTIR spectra of synthetic and dietary triglyceride oils with various PUFAs, including DHA.…”

Crypthecodinium cohnii Growth and Omega Fatty Acid Production in Mediums Supplemented with Extract from Recycled Biomass

“…The FTIR spectrum of fish oil (Figure 3) reveals three high-intensity absorption bands at 2925, 2854 cm −1 (CH 3 and CH 2 vibrations, respectively), and 1745 cm −1 (C=O vibrations of lipid esters) that are indicative of lipids, FAs or triglycerides and therefore are indicative of total lipids. The spectrum also revealed a smaller peak at 3011 cm −1 (olefinic group = CH), which is typical for unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs/DHA) [34][35][36][37][38][39].…”

“…Fish oil supplements naturally contain a in the form of triacylglycerols (TAGs), a tri-ester [32,33]. Th (Figure 3) reveals three high-intensity absorption bands at 29 vibrations, respectively), and 1745 cm −1 (C=O vibrations of lip of lipids, FAs or triglycerides and therefore are indicative o also revealed a smaller peak at 3011 cm −1 (olefinic group = C saturated fatty acids (PUFAs/DHA) [34][35][36][37][38][39]. Samples for FTIR were collected only on day 14, due to biomass in the experimental setup.…”

Fatty Acid and Tocopherol Composition of Pomace and Seed Oil from Five Grape Varieties Southern Spain

“…Numerous studies have highlighted the significant roles of essential fatty acids in many biochemical pathways, including their cardioprotective effect due to their considerable antiatherogenic, antithrombotic, anti-inflammatory, antiarrhythmic and hypolipidemic effects [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. These compounds have a complex influence on concentrations of lipoproteins, the fluidity of biological membranes, the function of membraned enzymes and receptors, the modulation of eicosanoids production, blood pressure regulation, and the metabolism of minerals [ 20 ] and cholesterol [ 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”

“…The fatty acids profile may be an indicator of functional qualities of oil obtained from vinification by-products. Thus, the unsaturation ratio (USFA/SFA), an indicator of the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids related to saturated fatty acids, is used to evaluate the nutritional value of the lipid fraction of food, and it is also used to determine indexes for recurrent cardiovascular disease syndromes such as atherogenicity or thrombogenicity [ 24 ]. In nutrition, high values of this ratio are desirable since they express the effect of FAs on cholesterol metabolism.…”