diff --git a/lib/resty/libjwt/init.lua b/lib/resty/libjwt/init.lua
index a86ef72..6a7f172 100644
--- a/lib/resty/libjwt/init.lua
+++ b/lib/resty/libjwt/init.lua
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ end
 local TOKEN_VALID = 0
 local JWKS_CACHE_TTL = 300
 
-local function _validate(params)
+local function _authenticate(params)
     local headers = ngx.req.get_headers()
     local token, err
 
@@ -75,13 +75,21 @@ local function _validate(params)
     return nil, "invalid token"
 end
 
-local function _response_error(error_message, return_unauthorized_default)
+local function _extract_claims(token, params)
+    for _, claim in ipairs(params.extract_claims) do
+        if token.claim[claim] ~= nil then
+            ngx.var["jwt_"..claim] = token.claim[claim]
+        end
+    end
+end
+
+local function _response_error(error_message, return_unauthorized_default, status)
     if return_unauthorized_default == true then
         ngx.header.content_type = "application/json; charset=utf-8"
         local response = {
             message = error_message
         }
-        ngx.status = ngx.HTTP_UNAUTHORIZED
+        ngx.status = status
         ngx.say(cjson.encode(response))
         ngx.exit(ngx.status)
     end
@@ -92,14 +100,21 @@ end
 function _M.validate(user_params)
     local params, err = utils.get_params(user_params)
     if params == nil then
-        return nil, _response_error(err, true)
+        return nil, _response_error(err, true, ngx.HTTP_UNAUTHORIZED)
     end
 
     local parsed_token
-    parsed_token, err = _validate(params)
+    parsed_token, err = _authenticate(params)
     if err ~= "" then
-        return nil, _response_error(err, params.return_unauthorized_default)
+        return nil, _response_error(err, params.return_unauthorized_default, ngx.HTTP_UNAUTHORIZED)
     end
+
+    local claims_extracted;
+    claims_extracted, err = pcall(_extract_claims, parsed_token, params)
+    if not claims_extracted then
+        return nil, _response_error(err, params.return_unauthorized_default, ngx.HTTP_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR)
+    end
+
     return parsed_token, ""
 end
 
diff --git a/lib/resty/libjwt/utils.lua b/lib/resty/libjwt/utils.lua
index ac267a7..5f34ecb 100644
--- a/lib/resty/libjwt/utils.lua
+++ b/lib/resty/libjwt/utils.lua
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@ function _M.get_params(params)
     local result = {
         header_token = "Authorization",
         jwks_files = {},
-        return_unauthorized_default = true
+        return_unauthorized_default = true,
+        extract_claims = {},
     }
     if params == nil then
         return nil, "params is required"
@@ -19,6 +20,14 @@ function _M.get_params(params)
     if params["return_unauthorized_default"] ~= nil then
         result.return_unauthorized_default = params["return_unauthorized_default"]
     end
+
+    if params["extract_claims"] ~= nil then
+        if type(params["extract_claims"]) ~= "table" then
+            return nil, "extract_claims is not an array"
+        end
+        result.extract_claims = params["extract_claims"]
+    end
+
     if type(params["jwks_files"]) ~= "table" then
         return nil, "jwks_files is not an array"
     end
diff --git a/nginx.conf b/nginx.conf
index 00dda4a..1b603dc 100644
--- a/nginx.conf
+++ b/nginx.conf
@@ -5,10 +5,15 @@ events {
 }
 
 http {
+    log_format mylog '$remote_addr - "$request"\tStatus: $status JWT-Subject: $jwt_sub JWT-Email: $jwt_email';
+    access_log /dev/stdout mylog;
     server {
         listen 8888;
         server_name localhost;
 
+        set $jwt_sub "";
+        set $jwt_email "";
+
         location /public {
             default_type application/json;
             return 200 '{"message": "Hello, World!"}';
@@ -18,11 +23,12 @@ http {
             access_by_lua_block {
                 local libjwt = require("resty.libjwt")
                 local cjson = require("cjson.safe")
-                local token, err = libjwt.validate({
-                    ["jwks_files"] = {"/usr/share/tokens/jwks.json"},
+                local token = libjwt.validate({
+                    jwks_files = {"/usr/share/tokens/jwks.json"},
+                    extract_claims = {"sub", "email"},
                 })
                 if token then
-                    local claim_str = cjson.encode(claim) or "Invalid Token"
+                    local claim_str = cjson.encode(token) or "Invalid Token"
                     ngx.status = ngx.HTTP_OK
                     return ngx.say(claim_str)
                 end
diff --git a/test/params_test.lua b/test/params_test.lua
index 86a7a69..e39d60c 100644
--- a/test/params_test.lua
+++ b/test/params_test.lua
@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@ function TestShouldReturnValidatedParams()
     lu.assertEquals(result, {
         header_token = "token",
         jwks_files = { "files" },
-        return_unauthorized_default = true
+        return_unauthorized_default = true,
+        extract_claims = {},
     })
 end