Polyphenol extraction from grape wastes: Solvent and pH effect

World wine industry transforms 10% 25% of raw grapes into residues, mainly represented by lees, grape marcs, seeds and stems. These byproducts are a rich source of polyphenols and therefore they can be used to produce new added value products. The aim of this work was to determine the best process conditions (treatment time, % of ethanol and pH of the solvent) during solid-liquid extraction of polyphenols from grape marcs, by analyzing the phenolic content of the extracts, namely: total polyphenol content, flavanols, flavonols, phenolic acids and anthocyanins. Antioxidant activity of the extracts was also determined. An extraction time of two hours was enough since longer times did not increase process yields. Best extraction yields were obtained for 75% ethanol solutions. Basic pH led to better yields in extracting media with low percentage of ethanol, whereas acid pH presented better extraction yields in extracting media with high percentage of ethanol. Among all the polyphenols extracted, anthocyanins were the most abundant representing over 40% of the total. In general, the best process conditions were 2 h of extraction in a 75% EtOH liquid mixture at pH = 2.