Scientists develop a sustainable way to convert kale waste into products for health and personal care

Millions of tons of food and vegetables are discarded globally every year. In the case of leafy vegetables like kale and lettuce, farmers cut off outer leaves as they are harvested, in order to sell perfectly sized and aesthetically pleasing vegetables with no signs of damage or yellowing. This commercial practice results in a significant amount of perfectly good, edible leaves being thrown away.

Current processes for extracting phytochemicals from kale are energy-intensive, requiring high pressure and temperatures, which contribute additional COemissions to the environment. Moreover, the industrial extraction processes only target a single type of phytochemical each time. After repeated testing, the researchers established the best NADES solvent for optimal extraction of bioactive compounds. The NTU team found that when the kale waste and NADES mixture is stirred and set aside, it naturally separated into layers, facilitating the easy extraction of the phytochemicals from kale without the need for heating.

The newly developed process involves first blending the kale waste into a paste . The researchers then mixed the kale paste with their specially formulated NADES solvent and stirred it mechanically at room temperature, before filtering the mixture to extract the beneficial compounds. The entire low energy process, unlike current industrial methods that require high heat, is also fast and can be completed within 30 minutes.

First author Dr. Lee Sze Ying, a research fellow at the Environmental Chemistry and Materials Center at NEWRI at the time of the study, said,"Our extraction approach is unique because it allows for the simultaneous recovery and separation of multiple valuable compounds from the vegetable waste in a single process without using heat.

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