The recovery of waste, coming from the agricultural and food sector, for the production of high value-added products has emerged, in the last years, as a key strategy for reduce their elimination. Carrots are the second most popular vegetable and carrot peel and pulp waste represent an important agro-food waste that contain high amounts of phenolic compounds. Many plant phenols have shown antifungal activity against human pathogens. Fungal skin diseases affect 20% -25% of the world's population. The aim of this project is to analyze the carrot waste from the agro-industrial company, to evaluate its activity as antifungals and inhibitors of the biofilm of fungi that cause cutaneous and muco-cutaneous infections such as Candida, Malassezia and dermatophytes. Crude extracts from different waste matrices such as hot peeling, puree-like material obtained from juice production process, water of vapor concentration and purple carrot juice with short shelf life will be performed. The obtained extracts will be characterized and tested against planktonic and sessile cells of Candida albicans, dermatophyes and Malassezia furfur.
The results obtained could lead to identify a new strategy for the production of phytochemicals with antifungal activity. This project could lead to increase the added value of by-products or waste from the transformation process and reduce the problem of waste disposal.
Increase the added value of by-products obtained from transformation process or processed waste of the purple carrots
The diversified reuse of by-products towards the production of materials with a health and antimicrobial value through green chemistry methods is a goal of transfer technology. It can lead to increase the added value of by-products or waste from the transformation process or end of shelf life. Carrot is an important worldwide food crop and its production is associated with carrot waste production (i.e., carrot pomace). A variety of technologies aimed at adding value to the by-products or lessening the environmental impacts of current disposal strategies have been explored in the recent years (Barzee et al. Carrots. In Integrated Processing Technologies for Food and Agricultural By-Products. Academic Press 297-330. 2019). To date, much of the agro waste, including carrot pulp and peels is discarded; however, this waste is rich in bioactive compounds.
The objective of this project is a possible use of carrot waste as antifungal agents. In this project, by-products obtained from transformation process or processed waste of the purple carrots (Daucus carota ssp. sativus, varietà atrorubens Alef) will be tested again human fungal pathogens causes of skin diseases.
Use of purple carrots waste extracts as a topic antifungal agent against fungal biofilm
Only few classes of antifungals are available for the treatment of fungal infections, some of them have some side effects and show low actives for increased of fungal drug resistance (Nishimoto et al. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 75: 257-270. 2020.; Khurana, Fungal Genetics and Biology, 103255. 2019)
Among resistance, fungal biofilms induce a transient, physiological alteration in drug responses (Berman and Krysan, Nature Reviews Microbiology, 1-13. 2020). Therefore, it is necessary to discover new antifungal agents or safer alternatives to improve the efficacy of treatment against fungal biofilm infections. In this regard, antifungal agents based on natural resources may be an alternative strategy to overcome antifungal drug resistance (Negri et al. Molecules, 19: 2925-2956. 2014).
Among natural resources, the use of plant wastes might be a strategy to recover bioactive compounds. Phenolic compounds are widely found in plant foods such as vegetables. The most common phenolic compounds are phenolic acids (cinnamic and benzoic acids), flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, coumarins, stilbenes, lignans, and lignins. The anti-Candida properties of phenolic compounds that have been widely reported in the literature for anti-biofilm effect (Shahzad et al. International journal of antimicrobial agents, 44: 269-273. 2014).