Abstract

RODRIGUES*, M. Ângelo; BARREIRA, João C.M.; FERREIRA, Isabel C.F.R.  and  BENTO, Albino. Estimating of chestnut by-products and some potential uses. Rev. de Ciências Agrárias [online]. 2020, vol.43, n.spe2, pp.51-60.  Epub Dec 01, 2020. ISSN 0871-018X.  https://doi.org/10.19084/rca.19711.

The sector of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) experiences a highly ambiguous situation. If, on one hand, producers have felt a strong incentive to invest in the crop, due to the favourable prices that the nut has been maintaining, on the other hand some discouragement tends to arise, due to the diseases and pests that devastate the crop. In any case, the chestnut remains the main source of income for farmers in several communities in the North and Centre of the country, with national production exceeding 34,000 t of nuts (INE, 2019). Nowadays, the chestnut is valued mainly for the edible part of the fruit. However, with a view to improve the profitability of producers and other agents in the sector and to increase the sustainability of the production systems, it would be important to find new uses for the by-products associated with the harvest and the industrial transformation. With some quantitative expression, bark (3000 t year-1), hedgehogs (10 000 t year-1) and pruning wood (30 000 t year-1), but also flowers and leaves, can be important raw materials for different business areas, especially as they contain a high number of chemical compounds with potential application in the food and/or pharmaceutical industry. In this work some statistical data of the species and an estimate of the by-products are presented, as well as some of their potential uses.

Keywords : Castanea sativa; produção de castanha; flores; cascas; ouriços; lenha de poda.

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