Recovery of tomato bioactive compounds through a biocompatible and eco-sustainable new technology for the production of enriched "nutraceutical tomato products"

The increase of knowledge concerning the importance of nutrients in human health is creating more and more a new market for products containing biologically active compounds and leading to a redefinition of criteria for the development of new "green technologies" of separation and extraction of natural bioactive molecules. During the last years numerous research groups have studied the possibility to recover bioactive compounds from vegetables by-products and/or from their industrial processes. This paper is aimed to introduce an innovative process for the production of new tomato-based juice ("beta-juice") extract, naturally enriched with bioactive components (lycopene and polyphenols) improved from selected High Pigment (round square shape) tomato cultivars. Data concerning the enriched tomato juice obtained, showed that it could be easily employed both as source of natural antioxidants and colorant for the formulation of novel functional foods and/or as a concentrated bioactive additive for foods to extend their added-value; moreover, this method has proved to be in agreement with the emerging concepts of sustainability and recycle/reuse from industrial point of view. This technology involves a complete "eco-sustainable" extraction process that lead to concentrate and enhance the bioactive compounds which are normally found in processed products (e.g., pulp and puree). Further studies will be carried out in order to improve the application of this new "green technology" to all the other processing vegetable industrial residues.