Vegetable waste biomass as a renewable source of valueadded polyphenols and polysaccharides

Vegetable biomass is one of the most promising renewable sources of energy and chemicals. Indeed, its exploitation for biofuels and chemicals production has been the focus of research over the last years since the gradual shift toward the so-called bio-based economy (an economy system based on exploitation of renewable resources), has determined a global increasing demand for goods mainly derived from vegetable biomass. In line with the biorefinery approach for the re-use of waste biomass, the residues of industrial processing of lemon (Citrus limon), tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum var. ‘‘Hybrid Rome’’), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare var. dulce) and carrot (Daucus carota), were used as sources of two kinds of value addedproducts i.e polysaccharides and polyphenols. Here we described the main properties of the polyphenol extracts and the polysaccharides fractions that could be obtained by each selected waste biomass. Both the polyphenol and polysaccharides fractions were investigated for their chemical composition and for the biological and biotechnological properties.