Ohmic, ultraviolet, and infrared heating-assisted extraction of bioactive compounds

Bioactive compounds have gained a lot of attention among researchers due to their potential to reduce the risk associated with developing several diseases affecting the global population. Extracting bioactive compounds from natural origin has been carried out with conventional extraction (CE) technologies, but several limitations have hindered the recovery of these compounds. In this sense, alternative methods using electromagnetic radiation [ohmic heating (OH), infrared (IR) irradiation, and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation] gained the spotlight due to key advantages in relation to CE methods. This chapter aims to cover the fundamentals of OH, IR, and UV methods, highlight their application to obtain bioactive compounds from different sources, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. These technologies have key advantages that support their use to obtain bioactive compounds that improves the extraction as a whole and are more environmentally friendly than conventional methods. Further developments, especially combining these technologies, could add additional advantages to the extraction of bioactive compounds.