Characterization of essential oil recovered from fennel horticultural wastes |
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| Authors: | Domenico Cautela Filomena Monica Vella Domenico Castaldo |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Stazione Sperimentale per le Industrie delle Essenze e dei derivati dagli Agrumi (SSEA) - Azienda Speciale della Camera di Commercio di Reggio , Reggio Calabria, Italy;2. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Biologia Agro-ambientale e Forestale (IBAF) , Napoli, Italy;3. Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico (MiSE) , Roma, Italy;4. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e ProdAL scarl, Università degli Studi di Salerno , Fisciano (SA), Italy |
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| Abstract: | Fennel crop has been traditionally used as spice in cooking and fragrances, and in folk medicine for its spectrum of useful properties. Mediterranean is the elective natural cultivation area for this plant with Italy being a leader producer. A limit of this production is due to the high amount of wastes derived still rich of phytochemicals, which are usually underused. Hence, the extraction and characterization of essential oil from residues of fennel horticultural market was investigated to understand the potential profit of their recycling. Forty-eight compounds resulted for fennel oil waste, analysed by GC-FID-MS, with the most abundant among components was anethole. Other constituents contributing to fennel flavour were the monoterpenes limonene and nerol. The exploitation of this oil as a good source of bioactive compounds was assessed by means of its antioxidant power measured with DPPH test. |
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| Keywords: | Foeniculum vulgare essential oil fennel wastes phytochemical recovery antioxidant activity |
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