Rapid and sustainable recovery of phenolic compounds from olive mill wastewater with gold nanoparticles

Phenolic compounds represent one of the most important and ubiquitous groups of plant metabolite. They have possible beneficial implicaons in human health, such as their an- microbial, an-carcinogenic effects and their anoxidant acvity. Phenolic compounds could be considered like “quality molecular markers” in food. During the producon process of Olive Oil is generate an important by-product: the olive mill waste water (OMWW). OMWW consist of the water contained in the drupe, the washing water and the process water. In OMWW is present a high concentraon of phenols and polyphenols, with strong anmicrobial and phytotoxic properes. The aim of this work is to develop a rapid, simple and sustainable extracon procedure based on the use of gold nanoparcles (AuNPs). This method has been recently applied for the extracon of phenolic compounds in Extravirgin Olive Oil (EVOO). The AuNPs are chosen for the interacon with OMWW in order to load phenolic compounds on the surface of NPs and then to release them in a specific tool (nutraceuc, cosmec, pharmaceuc, etc.). In this framework, nanoparcles can be used, taking advantage of their unique surface properes and high surface/volume rao. Among others, gold nanoparcles (AuNPs) offer high stability, easy chemical synthesis and a wide range of surface funconalizaons also with the use o f w ater o r e co-friendly solvents and procedures. AuNPs have been studied as suitable materials for applicaons ranging from sensors to biotechnology, drug delivery, nanomedicine , food control and optoelectronics. It is noteworthy that AuNPs are considered generally nontoxic, allowing their use for example food analysis and as tools for quality control.