Peels from Fruits and Vegetables: Opening the Door for the Creation of Novel Medicines

India generates significant fruit and vegetable waste due to inadequate storage, poor transportation, improper handling, and lack of processing facilities. Around 30-40% of fruits and vegetables produced are wasted annually, with 67 million tons of food wasted annually. Fruit and vegetable peel waste can be used in ruminant diets, composting, making natural cleaners, and creating natural dyes. Fruit and vegetable peels are rich in phytonutrients, antioxidants, and have antibacterial properties, making them beneficial for animal nutrition and health. Composting peels can also promote sustainable gardening practices. Fruit and vegetable peels have medicinal uses, such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. They can be used in traditional medicine for digestion, inflammation, and immune support. Orange peels, banana peel, pineapple peel, onion peels, cucumber peels and potato peels have pharmacological properties, such as antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory effects, and antimicrobial properties. The peels contain vitamin C, are rich in fibre, flavanols, phenols, hydroxycinnamic acids, flavan-3-ols, catecholamines and various bioactive compounds, which enhance nutritional content and reduce lipid oxidation in meat-based products. This review concludes that many fruit and vegetable peels we currently waste have various beneficial bioactive components which are helpful in treating numerous diseases and disorders. However further research is needed to confirm these findings.