Sunflower Seed Hulls and Meal—A Waste with Diverse Biotechnological Benefits
Flora Tsvetanova, Greta Naydenova, Stanislava Boyadzhieva
Abstract
Sunflower seed hulls and meal are among the most abundant by-products of the food industry. They are an example of waste and, at the same time, a plentiful biomass that cannot be utilized directly in human and animal diets due to their hard digestibility and low nutritional value. Besides their main compounds—carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins—they possess valuable constituents such as vitamins, minerals, and especially phenolics that contribute to their antioxidant capacity. Numerous benefits can be retrieved from such by-products. Since sunflower meal and seed hulls are cheap renewable sources of beneficial substances, their potential in relation to the improvement in our daily life needs to be studied. This is the reason why, in recent years, there has been such a serious interest in their utilization and valorization towards the concept of a circular bio-based economy and process sustainability. This review aims to trace the potential applications and implementation of sunflower meal and hulls in the different fields of industry and environmental protection strategies.