A multidisciplinary team, consisting of members from private and academic sectors, develops a new process to produce a skin extract from remains of grapes used in wine industry, which has antioxidant properties.
The team, one of the finalists of the I-Corps Program Mexico, seeks to recycle and convert the pomace of grape – solid remains after pressing — derived from the wine industry in an extract that could have medical and cosmetic applications.
In an interview, Carlos Guzman Nieves, Project Entrepreneurial Leader and Biochemist Engineer from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), said that the research started several years ago in the IPN’s classrooms, and once he completed his academic training decided to continue the project.
“This is a process to produce an extract rich in phenolic compounds (micronutrients from vegetal origin) from grape pomace, which is the waste of this fruit, such as skins, seeds and stems, derived from winemaking process.”
The researcher also said that similar processes currently exist to generate products based on grape; however, many of them are conducted at elevated temperatures, decreasing the antioxidant power of phenolic compounds.
“At low temperatures (under 20 degrees) is maintained stability of phenolic compounds for longer periods, unlike other processes reported in the literature that are carried out over 35 degrees, temperature that tends to damage the stability of the compounds,” he said.
The importance of this new cold process is that it preserves the antioxidant properties for longer. But this is not only about antioxidant properties, but also about qualities that are beneficial for the skin, such as preventing aging, moisturizing and generally improve skin conditions.
According to the researcher, the new process (which is already patented) uses existing technology already used in the process of wine production. “Merely, technical adjustments to the process are applied, some parameters are modified, temperatures, extraction conditions and contact times,” he said.
“The project is in a final stage. Only some technical tests are missing, but we are practically ready to scale it to pilot plant level, to test different grape varieties,” Guzman Nieves said. “The next step is to test the extraction technique it at least five varieties and make studies of phenolic compounds, and then complete the scaling to pilot plant.”
Source: CONACYT
