Recent advances in extraction of bioactive compounds from tobacco industrial waste-a review

Acting as the one of the main non-food crops, tobacco plays an important role in agriculture all over the world. Tobacco processing industries generate a huge volume of tobacco waste as by-product which is usually discarded due to its nicotine content, and only small part of it is recycled. Recycled waste is used for producing low value tobacco paper, named reconstituted tobacco, which causes waste of abundant bioactive compounds with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antifungal properties. This review summaries the last knowledge about extraction of bioactive compounds from tobacco waste and introduces principles of new, most applied extraction techniques, such as ultrasound-assisted extraction, supercritical CO2 extraction and microwave-assisted extraction. Based on comparison of these techniques, this review points out that extraction of bioactive compounds from tobacco waste is new opportunity for this type of waste and its contribution to sustainable waste and resource management. What is more, extraction of bioactive compounds can be effective at two levels. Firstly, extracted compounds can be implemented into new products. Secondly, after extraction of certain bioactive compounds, tobacco waste becomes more suitable for some other application or disposal.