摘要：Almost 200 million tons of organic wastes are ge nerated in the world (FAOSTAT). As in the past these wastes often have been dumped without any treatment or used as fuel, animal feed or fertilizer. Recently, new methods and policies for waste treatment have been introduced. This may be due to the increasing necessity for prevention of environmental pollution as well as for economical reasons and the need to conserve energy and raw materials. Plants extracts contain compounds such as lipids, phytochemicals, bioactive compounds, flavors, pharmaceutics, fragrances and pigments. They are widely used in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Traditional methods, which have been used for many decades, are very time consuming and require relatively large quantities of solvents (1). Polyphenols have antioxidant activity because of their easily oxidizing characteristics. Oxidization with being one of the main reactions for the degradation of oils also cause decreased self life and nutritive value of foods. There is an increasing demand for new extraction techniques. The purpose of this review is to highlight the potential applications of ultrasound assisted extraction techniques using by-products as a source of functional compounds.
