Evolution of Functional Foods, Nutraceuticals and Probiotics: From Conventional Food to Next Generation Biotherapeutics

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last few years, there has been mounting evidence and understanding concerning human health and its association with foods. Moreover, as the battles against various diseases such as diabetes, obesity, gastrointestinal disorders, cancer and heart disease continue, scientific communities are seeking to create a healthier society through nutrition and dietary-based approaches. As a result, the evolution of conventional food systems into novel diet-based strategies such as functional foods, nutraceuticals, and probiotics is of high significance as it not only provides nutritional benefits but also helps to improve human health. Several new-generation foods such as functional foods are meant to impart health promotion or disease prevention benefits in addition to providing the required amount of essential nutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, fats, and oils needed for healthy survival. On the other hand, nutraceuticals are termed as a “food, or parts of a food, that provide medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease”. Meanwhile, probiotic is considered as one of the novel food product, which has many health benefits other than basic nutritional significance. Although, these food-based strategies such as biotherapeutics are not used as an alternative for conventional treatments but are used as an adjuvant to standard therapy. A well-balanced diet along with a prescribed amount of these products can manage many metabolic disorders.

In this Special Issue, we welcome reviews and original research manuscripts that address the recent advancements and technological innovations in the functional foods, nutraceuticals, probiotics and their application for the management of various disorders such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders, inflammatory disorders, neurodegenerative disorders and many more.

We welcome manuscripts with a focus on the following topics below:

• Recent updates and developments in the production of functional foods, nutraceuticals, and probiotics.
• Role of functional food, nutraceuticals, and probiotics for the management of different metabolic disorders.
• Uncovering the potential of functional foods and nutraceuticals as a targeted therapy.
• Mechanistic approaches to recognize the clinical implications of functional foods, nutraceuticals, and probiotics.
• The use of multi-omics and computational approaches to understand the role of food bioactive compounds present in functional foods and nutraceutical products, protein–ligand binding interactions, and its affinity.

Dr. Syed Amir Ashraf
Dr. Ishrat Majid
Dr. Shakira Ghazanfar
Guest Editors

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• functional foods
• nutraceuticals
• probiotics
• health-promoting agent
• dietary supplements
• metabolic disorders
• gastrointestinal disorders
• fermented foods
• bioactive compounds