Paolo Zucca

Department of Biomedical Sciences

Telephone: +39 0706754526

Personal webpage: here

Main areas of expertise: Chemistry of Antioxidants, Quinones, and Related Enzymes; Biochemistry of parasitic plants; Valorization of lignocellulosic wastes; Enzyme Purification, Properties and Biotechnological Applications of Immobilized Enzymes and their Emulators

◆ Too precious to be wasted
All agroindustrial processes produce huge amounts of lignocellulosic wastes. Despite being completely “natural” (at least in the common sense of the word), these materials are enough recalcitrant and toxic to represent a real environmental issue. Besides, lignocellulosic biomasses still present many added-value applications: for instance, cellulosic component could be an inexpensive source of bioethanol, but also phenolics draw the attention of industries in several fields. Exploitation of lignocellulosic is, however, a challenging task: multidisciplinary approach is necessary, involving phytochemical characterization of the raw materials, but also its catalytic modification, as well as the evaluation of biological activities.

Key publications:

Maisetta, G.; Batoni, G.; Caboni, P.; Esin, S.; Rinaldi, A. C.; Zucca, P. Tannin profile , antioxidant properties , and antimicrobial activity of extracts from two Mediterranean species of parasitic plant Cytinus. BMC Complement. Altern. Med. 2019, 19, 1–11, doi:10.1186/s12906-019-2487-7.
Salehi, B.; Varoni, E. M.; Sharifi-Rad, M.; Rajabi, S.; Zucca, P.; Iriti, M.; Sharifi-Rad, J. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition as a target for botanicals in cancer metastasis. Phytomedicine 2019, 55, 125–136, doi:10.1016/j.phymed.2018.07.001.
Ben Attia, I.; Zucca, P.; Cesare Marincola, F.; Piras, A.; Rosa, A.; Chaieb, M.; Rescigno, A. Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Potential Differences between Cynomorium coccineum L. Growing in Italy and in Tunisia: Effect of Environmental Stress. Diversity 2018, 10, 1–14, doi:10.3390/d10030053.
Zucca, P.; Fernandez-Lafuente, R.; Sanjust, E. Agarose and its derivatives as supports for enzyme immobilization. Molecules 2016, 21, doi:10.3390/molecules21111577.
Zucca, P.; Neves, C. M. B.; Simões, M. M. Q.; Neves, M. D. G. P. M. S.; Cocco, G.; Sanjust, E. Immobilized lignin peroxidase-like metalloporphyrins as reusable catalysts in oxidative bleaching of industrial dyes. Molecules 2016, 21, doi:10.3390/molecules21070964.
Asthana, S.; Zucca, P.; Vargiu, A. V. A. V; Sanjust, E.; Ruggerone, P.; Rescigno, A. Structure–Activity Relationship Study of Hydroxycoumarins and Mushroom Tyrosinase. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2015, 63, 7236–7244, doi:10.1021/acs.jafc.5b02636.