Extraction of bioactive compounds from plants and their use as food preservatives and active pharmaceutical ingredients

During last decades, consumer sensitivity toward natural food consumption and the development and diffusion of resistant bacteria to chemical preservatives, have led to an increasing interest toward alternative preservation strategies. Among the latter, an interesting approach is represented by the production of plant Extracts and Essential Oils (EOs) and their application as antioxidant and antimicrobial agents (Smid and Gorris, 1999). In addition, the bioactive compounds in these extracts present interesting biological activity with important health benefits (e.g. antinflammatory, antitumoral). Among different vegetal species, coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) and industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) have shown to possess high contents of bioactive compounds and different biological activities. Coriander presents antibacterial, antifungal and anti-oxidative activities (Mandal and Mandal, 2015), and its extracts and essential oil have been already efficiently applied as flavouring and preservative agents, in pharmaceutical products and in cosmetic preparations. Industrial hemp on the other hand, presents interesting secondary metabolites that can be exploited in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry (Ranalli and Venturi, 2004). In addition, the presence of cannabidiol (CBD) confers to this plant important pharmacological properties, including antitumoral activity (Burstein, 2015). In this perspective, the present PhD thesis project will be directed to the production of coriander and hemp extracts with interesting biopreservation potentials and biological activities. In particular, extractions will be obtained, beside conventional methods, utilizing one of the most innovative technique, the RSLDE - Rapid Solid-Liquid Dynamic Extraction, performed by "Naviglio Extractor®“(Naviglio, 2003).