Sabrina Antonia Prencipe

Wheat is the third most cultivated cereal in the world and represents the major contributor to human nutrition. Milling wheat by-products such as husks (17–20% of the total processing output weight), even if still containing high-value-added bioactive compounds, are often left untreated or unused, thus resulting in environmental and human health burdens. In these regards, the present study is aimed at evaluating in a multimethodological approach the nutraceutical properties of durum wheat husks belonging to the ancient cultivar “Senatore Cappelli”, thus assessing their potential as bioactive compound sources in terms of phytochemical, cytotoxic, and nutraceutical properties. By means of HPLC-FD analyses, wheat husk samples analyzed revealed a higher content of serotonin, amounting to 35% of the total BAs, and were confirmed to occur at biogenic amines quality index (BAQI) values <10 mg/100 g. In addition, spectrophotometric assays showed a significant variable content in the phenolic (189.71–351.14 mg GAE/100 g) and antioxidant compounds (31.23–37.84 mg TE/100 g) within the wheat husk samples analyzed, according to the different cultivar areas of origin. Considering wheat husk extracts’ anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity, in vitro analyses were performed on BV-2 murine microglia cells cultured in the presence or absence of LPS, thus evaluating their ability to promote microglia polarization towards an anti-inflammatory phenotype. Cytotoxicity assays showed that wheat extracts do not affect microglia viability. Wheat husks activity on microglial polarization was assessed by analyzing the expression of M1 and M2 markers’ mRNA by RT-PCR. Wheat husk antioxidant activity was assessed by analysis of NRF2 and SOD1 mRNA expression. Moreover, the sustainability assessment for the recovery of bioactive components from wheat by-products was carried out by applying the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology using SimaPro v9.2.2. software.

Rice is the most widely used cereal for human consumption, attributing its production as one of the most important activities for the global population. Therefore, given its economic and nutritional value, assessing the sustainability of this production process could be worth noting. In this regard, this research aims to investigate the most recent literature related to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of rice primary production, to clarify the extent to which Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) and thus the three pillars of sustainability have been applied in the rice sector, as well as to highlight possible research gaps. Thus, 40 articles (2012–2022) were analyzed. The main research gaps that were found were, firstly, that there was a lesser tendency to consider multiple functional units, highlighting how little multifunctionality is considered. As to be expected, there was also a great difference in methodological choices, which often leads to a great variability of results, making evaluations and comparisons of impacts uncertain. These were also highly dependent on soil and climate conditions in the various countries, which could in turn affect input utilization, and results. The study of the impacts of primary rice production was then addressed by a few countries, among which some of the largest producers were absent, while the least considered aspects were related to the depletion of abiotic resources and the promotion of organic farming. Finally, sustainability assessments in rice production had little focus on the socio-economic dimension, showing how little LCT is considered. Therefore, based on this consideration, a Social Life Cycle Assessment was integrated into the study, the results of which show that the countries with medium to high social impacts could be India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Bangladesh.