New insight for spent hops utilization: simultaneous extraction of protein and xanthohumol using deep eutectic solvents

Abstract

Abstract Agro-food by-products are a cheap source of bioactive and functional compounds that should be used via a biorefinery approach to produce a range of bio-based products. Spent hops (SH) are an important by-product of the brewing industry and are rich in valuable ingredients such as proteins and xanthohumol (XN). Considering the increasing demand for plant-based proteins and the broad spectrum of XN bioactivity, it is important to develop eco-friendly and cost-effective techniques to extract these components. In this work, a simple, one-pot, green method for the simultaneous extraction of proteins and XN from SH using deep eutectic solvents (DESs) was developed. Protein and XN-rich precipitates were obtained by adding water (antisolvent) to the DES extracts. To determine the XN conte