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FINNOVER is an EU Interreg-Alcotra project that aims to bring new perspectives to floriculture enterprises by recovering useful bioproducts from the waste produced during processing of several aromatic species. In this study, a new operation strategy to recover lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.) solid by-products remaining after the extraction of the essential oil was developed. Pulsed ultrasound-assisted extraction was employed as a sustainable and eco-compatible technology to extract, in a very short time (10 min), this agricultural waste using a food-grade solvent (a mixture of ethanol/water). All the extracts obtained from both flower and leaf waste and flower-only residues, exhibit a promising total phenolic content (38–40 mg gallic acid/g of dry waste), radical scavenging activity (107–110 mg Trolox/g of dry waste) and total flavonoid content (0.11–0.13 mg quercetin/g of dry waste). Moreover, the chromatographic analysis of these extracts has shown that this overlooked agriculture waste can represent a valuable source of multifunctional compounds. Particularly, they exhibit a content of polyphenols and flavonoids up to 200 times higher than the corresponding leachate, and they are a valuable source of gentisic acid (1.4–13 mg/g dry waste) representing a new low-cost ingredient usable in different fields (i.e., cosmetic).

This Special Issue aims to provide new findings and information with respect to healthy foods and biologically active food ingredients. Studies on the chemical, technological, and nutritional characteristics of healthy food ingredients will be taken into consideration as well as analytical methods for monitoring their quality. New findings on the bioavailability and the mechanism of action of food bioactive compounds will be considered. Moreover, studies on the rational design of potential new formulations, both of functional foods and of food supplements, have been taken into account.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the anti-tyrosinase activity of different aqueous extracts obtained from pomegranate juice processing by-products. External pomegranate peels of two certified cultivars (Akko and Wonderful), were extracted using only water as the extraction solvent. A traditional decoction and a pulsed ultrasound-assisted extraction (PUAE), both 10 min long, were performed and compared. All the aqueous extracts proved to be rich in bioactive compounds. In particular, the total phenolic content (TPC) ranged from 148 to 237 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g of dried peels (DW), the radical-scavenging ability (RSA) ranged from 307 to 472 mg ascorbic acid equivalent (AAE)/g DW, the free ellagic acid content (EA) ranged from 49 to 94 µg/mL, and the ellagitannins (ETs) ranged from 242 to 340 µg/mL. For both cultivars, PUAE extracts had higher ET content and a lower EC50, while the decoctions had slightly higher TPC, RSA, and free EA amounts. Principal component analysis (PCA) highlighted the direct correlation between the ET content and the tyrosinase enzyme inhibition (lower values of EC50). These findings suggest the potential use of both these natural extracts as low-cost lightening and/or anti-browning ingredients exploitable in several formulations (e.g., cosmetics) or extemporarily usable.