Ricerc@Sapienza

The high freshwater consumption requirements in shrimp biorefinery approaches represents one of the major drawbacks of implementing these technologies within the shrimp processing industry. This also affects the costs associated with the plant operation, and consequently, the overall economic performance of the project. The application of mass integration tools such as water pinch analysis can reduce frewshwater consumption by up to 80%, contributing to shrimp biorefinery sustainability.

Aftermyocardial infarction, the heart’smechanical properties and its intrinsic capability to recover are
compromised.To improve this recovery, several groups have developed cardiac patches based on different
biomaterials strategies.Here, we developed polyvinylalcohol/dextran (PVA/Dex) elastic hydrogel patches,
obtained through the freeze thawing (FT) process, with the aimto deliver locally a potent natural
antioxidantmolecule, astaxanthin, and to assist the heart’s response against the generatedmyofibril stress.

Natural antioxidants, such as astaxanthin (AX), resveratrol (RV) and curcumin (CU), are bioactive molecules that show a number of therapeutic effects. However, their applications are remarkably limited by their poor water solubility, physico-chemical instability and low bioavailability.