Chemistry and bioactivity of isoprenoids from agro-industrial biomasses: toward a 3rd -generation biorefinery

Environmental issues related to the use of fossil resources point to the need to obtain energy from sun, wind and biomasses. Among these sources, biomasses have many advantages, including the ability to be storable and ubiquitous. Agro-processing industry generates a large amounts of residues that can be exploited to obtain bioactive compounds and fine chemicals. In this context, the supply chain strategy should evolve towards the biorefinery concept, an integrated manufacturing platform from which to obtain, from a specific crop, different types of bioproducts. This PhD work is aimed to the development of expeditious and scalable methods to isolate bioactive compounds (mainly isoprenoids) from agro-industrial biomasses and to set the basis for their use as fine chemicals in various realms of application (pharma, food, cosmetics). Chemistry and bioactivity of two types of isoprenoids have been investigated, namely sesquiterpenoids of the germacrone and bisabolone clan, and triterpenoids from the pentacyclic-(ursane, oleanane, lupane, glycirrhetinic) and the tetracyclic (cycloartane) type. The sources are by-products from agriculture (guayule resin, olive tree prunings) or horticultural (plane bark) activities, or food plants (matè, licorice, turmeric). When see under an antropocentric light, my thesis has been an attempt to “domesticate” these compounds, tailoring them to specific biomedical indications in the realm of chronic diseases (inflammation, metabolic disease, cancer).