The use of agricultural residues to obtain products of higher added value is becoming a green alternative within the industrial sustainable processes. Processing of fruits and vegetables for commodities such as juices or sauces results in the accumulation of large amounts of byproducts of little or no commercial value. However, there are components of these waste products that are of potential value if they could be recovered economically. For example, cutin is the most abundant polyester in nature and constitutes the framework of the protective cuticle of stems and leaves of higher plants. Chemically, the cutin is an amorphous polymeric network of polyhydroxylated C16 and C18 fatty acids monomers cross-linked by ester bonds. The main monomer of tomato cuticle, 10,16-dihydroxy-hexadecanoic acid (10,16-DHPA) and its methyl ester derivative (methyl-10,16-dihydroxyhexadecanote; methyl-10,16-DHHD) were used to enzymatically produced linear functionalized polyesters [1]. All the compounds, characterized by NMR, MALDI-TOF and ESI-MS analysis, have potential application in the food, pharmacy and cosmetology areas. In this regard, a study of their capacity to form interfacial films at the air-water and air-solid interfaces was performed using Langmuir and Langmuir-Blodgett thin films, respectively. Langmuir films were also observed and characterized with Brewster Angle Microscopy (BAM). Langmuir-Blodgett films of the polyesters were analyzed by contact angle measurements, atomic force microscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry. In this work, our latest results will be presented. [1] Gómez-Patiño, B.; Cassani, J.; Jaramillo-Flores, E.; Zepeda-Vallejo, G.; Sandoval, G.; Jimenez-Estrada, M. and Arrieta-Baez, D., (2013). Molecules (18):9317-9333.

Formation and characterization of 10,16-dihydroxyhexadecanoic acid thin films extracted from tomato residues

249th National Meeting (2015)

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