Potential of residues from the Mediterranean agriculture and agrifood industry

• Residues from Mediterranean agriculture had not received much attention for exploitation so far.
• Methods for extraction of valuable products have been developed and exposed here.
• Interesting compounds for the food and nutraceutical fields have been found.

The most abundant agrifood residues in the Mediterranean basin derive from the two traditional crops: olive trees and vineyards. They are vine shoots and leaves (both fresh and senescent leaves) lees, grape skins, seeds and stalk, on the one hand; olive tree leaves and olive pomace, on the other. The potential of these residues as a powerful source of well known phenols with antioxidant properties has been proved; nevertheless, there are a number of other unknown phenols together with other families of very valuable compounds that should be studied. This article constitutes a call of attention on this unexploited wealth.