Coffee waste may be a rich source antioxidants for supplements, suggest scientists

By Nathan Gray

- Last updated on GMT

Coffee waste may be a rich source antioxidants for dietary supplements

Related tags Coffee

Waste from brewing coffee could be a valuable resource for the production of antioxidants for dietary supplements, say researchers.

Writing in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry​ scientists from the University of Navarra, Spain, examined the antioxidant content of the coffee waste finding that a large amount of the antioxidants from coffee remain in the waste product.

Led by Maria-Paz de Peña, the research team found that filter, plunger, and espresso-type coffeemakers left high levels of antioxidants in coffee grounds, while mocha coffeemakers left the least.

“All spent coffee grounds, with the exception of those from the mocha coffeemaker, had relevant amounts of total caffeoylquinic acids, mainly dicaffeoylquinic acids … which were 4–7-fold higher than in their respective coffee brews,”​ said de Peña and her team.

In addition the researchers found that the used coffee waste contained high levels of other antioxidants in addition to extractable levels of caffeine.

“This study obtained spent coffee extracts with antioxidant properties that can be used as a good source of hydrophilic bioactive compounds,”​ explained the researchers.

Study details

De Peña and her team noted that the high levels of coffee consumed on a global level mean that around 20 million tons of used coffee grounds are generated annually.

Although some of this waste finds commercial use as fertiliser on farms, most is destined for landfills.

The team suggest that because filter and espresso coffeemakers are more common in homes and commercial kitchens, many of this waste could be put to use as a valuable source of antioxidants and other useful substances such as caffeine.

Even after these compounds are extracted, they note that the remaining grounds can still be used for fertiliser.

Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Volume 60, Issue 51, Pages 12565–12573, doi: 10.1021/jf3040594
“Evaluation of Spent Coffee Obtained from the Most Common Coffeemakers as a Source of Hydrophilic Bioactive Compounds”
Authors: Jimena Bravo, Isabel Juániz, Carmen Monente, Bettina Caemmerer, et al

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1 comment

Extend communications

Posted by Getachew,

Dear All, Thank you very much for your NEWSLETTER. I am from Ethiopia the birth place of arabica coffee. There is no access to computers and networks in the rural area. thus, it will be better if I print the newsletter and share it to the large rural coffee community.

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