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Review
. 2023 Mar 4;12(5):1095.
doi: 10.3390/foods12051095.

Functional Ingredients and Additives from Lemon by-Products and Their Applications in Food Preservation: A Review

Daniela Magalhães  1 , Ana A Vilas-Boas  1 , Paula Teixeira  1 , Manuela Pintado  1
Affiliations
Review

Functional Ingredients and Additives from Lemon by-Products and Their Applications in Food Preservation: A Review

Daniela Magalhães et al. Foods. .

Abstract

Citrus trees are among the most abundant fruit trees in the world, with an annual production of around 124 million tonnes. Lemons and limes are among the most significant contributors, producing nearly 16 million tonnes per year. The processing and consumption of citrus fruits generates a significant amount of waste, including peels, pulp, seeds, and pomace, which represents about 50% of the fresh fruit. Citrus limon (C. limon) by-products are composed of significant amounts of bioactive compounds, such as phenolic compounds, carotenoids, vitamins, essential oils, and fibres, which give them nutritional value and health benefits such as antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. These by-products, which are typically discarded as waste in the environment, can be explored to produce new functional ingredients, a desirable approach from a circular economy perspective. The present review systematically summarizes the potential high-biological-value components extracted from by-products to achieve a zero-waste goal, focusing on the recovery of three main fractions: essential oils, phenolic compounds, and dietary fibres, present in C. limon by-products, and their applications in food preservation.

Keywords: circular economy; citrus waste; dietary fibres; essential oils; food preservation; high-biological-value compounds; lemon by-products; phenolic compounds.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic view of the main structural composition of C. limon peels.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Outline of the main bioactivities of lemon by-products related to food preservation and human health with focus on the mechanisms of action of antimicrobial and antioxidant activity.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of research papers related to lemon by-products published in the last two decades. The search was carried out in Web of Science, using the keywords ‘’lemon by-products’’ and “lemon peels”. All abstracts were analyzed to classify the papers in one of five categories: essential oils: extraction/characterization; phenolic compounds: extraction/characterization; pectin: extraction/characterization; bioactive properties; and food applications.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic of essential oil extraction technologies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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