Natural extracts from fresh and oven-dried winemaking by-products as valuable source of antioxidant compounds.

Winemaking by-products are a natural source of antioxidant components; however, due to their highly perishable and seasonal nature, they may require a prior conservation step before being processed. Natural extracts from fresh and oven-dried red grape agro-industrial by-products were obtained by ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE), using a hydroalcoholic solution as extracting solvent. Extracts were analyzed by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS, to know the feasibility of winemaking by-products as natural sources of phenolic compounds, as well as the effect of the oven-drying treatment on the phenolic composition. Oven-drying at 45°C caused a significant decrease on the total phenolic content, which implied a reduction of the antioxidant capacity of the extracts. Also, it produced a decrease in total and individual flavan-3-ols, stilbenes, and flavonols, being greater in those extracts from stems. Respect to anthocyanins, which were only identified in grape pomace extracts, oven-drying caused an important decrease, being the peonidin-3-O-glucoside the more thermosensitive compound. Natural extracts from fresh or oven-dried winemaking by-products could be used in other food industries as a valuable source of phenolic compounds with antioxidant properties. However, further studies on other drying methods are required for addressing the preservation of phenolic compounds from winery by-products successfully.