Valorization of quinoa by-products and their potential applications

As an ancient crop, Chenopodium quinoa Willd., also known as quinoa, is traditionally consumed by Andean cultures in South America. Over the past decades, quinoa has been introduced to the global market and is gaining popularity as a potential functional food and nutraceutical source. In addition to the traditional applications in the fields of food and nutrition, quinoa has also been utilized in other fields such as biomass energy production and functional material development, which are mainly based on its by-products. It has been reported that the by-products of quinoa including stalks and bran contain multiple biological substances, with application potential in the field of medicine due to their health benefits. Hence, this work aimed to summarize the processing technologies for quinoa by-products, primarily in the production of biomass energy and food ingredients. The high-value utilization of quinoa by-products by extracting and identifying their active components was also summarized in this review. This work may be helpful for the valorization of quinoa by-products in the future.