Strawberry Leaves Extract for Cosmetic Industry

Abstract

In 2020, Portugal had an average strawberry production of 10 thousand tons, and 15 % was considered strawberry plant residues. This work proposed a new product that uses the compounds extracted from the strawberry residues - stem and leaves, excluding the fruit - as an active ingredient for cosmetic application. Strawberry leaves were extracted with 50 % ethanol. This extract mainly consists of lactic acid, ascorbic acid, ascorbic acid, and agrimoniin; these compounds are used in the chemical industry due to their antioxidant properties. A gel-cream formulation with 17.5 % strawberry leaves extracts was proposed. It proposed an industrial-scale production and a preliminary economic analysis to evaluate the project's profitability. The Net Present Value (NPV) was estimated as 3.40 M€ (4th year), and the pay-back time is on eight quarters.