Antioxidant analysis of ultra-fast selectively recovered 4-hydroxy benzoic acid from fruits and vegetable peel waste...

Food processing industries generate 25-30% of fruit and vegetable peel (F&VP) waste of the total produce, which are rich in polyphenolic antioxidants (PA). Sustainable solution for the above waste can be its valorization for the recovery of PA, often used as natural preservative. Present work reports rationally designed graphene oxide-based molecularly imprinted composites (GOMIPs) using ionic liquid 1-allyl-3-octylimidazolium chloride (A) as a green functional monomer for selective recovery of PA 4-Hydroxy benzoic acid (4HA) from F&VP/pomegranate peel (PGP) waste. GOMIP-A and GOMIP-V were characterized using various techniques for its successful synthesis. GOMIP-A attained equilibrium within 10 min with adsorption capacity of 190.56 μmol g^-1 for 4HA. Developed HPLC method depicted selective recovery of 77.23% and 62.83% 4HA from F&VP and PGP waste respectively by GOMIP-A. Subsequently, desorbed 4HA from GOMIP-A matrices exhibited the antioxidant potential of 33.53% (F&VP extract) and 47.97% (PGP extract) for DPPH radical.