Intensification of grape marc (Vitis vinifera) exploitation by subcritical water-ethanol extraction: Effect on polyphenol bioactivities and kinetic modelling

Subcritical solvent extraction (SSE) is an efficient and versatile technology for the recovery of bioactive compounds from food by-products. The present work aims to study the SSE efficiency and kinetics for the extraction of grape marc polyphenols. Water, ethanol, and a 50% water-ethanol mixture (EtOH 50%) were used as green solvents. The higher polyphenol content (4.05 ± 0.23 gGAE/100 gd. m.) and antioxidant activity (42.30 ± 0.68 mg α-toc/mL) were obtained with subcritical EtOH 50% at 120 °C and 10.3 MPa, respectively, 1.5- and 3-fold higher than the conventional extraction. According to kinetic modeling, SSE was four-fold faster and a degradation phenomenon of polyphenols was highlighted for times longer than 10 min. The two-site kinetic model and a second order exponential decay function suitably described the extraction kinetics and degradation phase, respectively (R2 > 0.97). A remarkable effect was highlighted on the polymerization degree and galloylation percentage of proanthocyanidins by SSE, and an increase in their antioxidant activity was observed.