Hydrothermal treatment of chestnut shells (Castanea sativa) to produce oligosaccharides and antioxidant compounds

Hydrothermal treatment is an environmentally friendly technology that allows the solubilisation of hemicellulosic oligosaccharides with potential for their use as prebiotics. The purpose of this study was to solubilize oligosaccharides and antioxidant compounds from chestnut shells by a hydrothermal processing. The highest content of oligosaccharides (18.3 g/L), with a relatively low level of monosaccharides (2.4 g/L) and degradation products (0.5 g/L) was obtained at 180 degrees C (severity of 3.08). In addition, the liquors presented a high content of phenolic and flavonoid compounds with good antioxidant properties. The GC-MS revealed that the most abundant phenolic compound was pyrogallol (13.2%). The molecular weight distribution of the solubilization products showed that a 26.5% presented an apparent Mw of 6077 g/mol and a 73.5% presented an apparent Mw of 586 g/mol with a high polydispersity index. MALDI-TOF, FTIR, and TGA analyses revealed structural information of these compounds and their thermal stability.