The students José Antonio Carrasco, Héctor Moreno, Alejandro Navarro and Francisco José Vicente from the Secondary School IES Dr. Pedro Guillén (Archena-Murcia-SPAIN) came to CEBAS-CSIC to work at the Food Science and Technology Department on a short Research Project entitled: ‘Citrus by-products: obtaining, characterization of bioactive compounds and nutrients for their sustainable application’.
During their time at CEBAS, the students learnt to work in the laboratory and to analyze some of the main compounds and nutrients present in the waste product of several typical and local citric fruits from the Region of Murcia: oranges, mandarins, grapefruits and lemons. They separated the waste parts, albedo and flavedo, and fully characterized their composition.
The project was presented at the X Edition of the IDIES Congress (http://www.idies-murcia.es/) together with those of many other students from schools of the Region. They learnt a lot about these waste products and their potential applications to enhance the sustainability of the citric industry. The students concluded their project by elaborating a nice recipe of muffins incorporating the lemons by-product. Overall, an excellent experience.
