The Benefits of Food Extracts for Human Health

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2024 | Viewed by 2364

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
CBQF—Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry—Associated Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Portuguese Catholic University, Porto, Portugal
Interests: production and characterization of functional ingredients and food; the valorization of agro-industrial by-products; evaluation of bioaccessibility; gastrointestinal microbiota; biomarkers; genotoxicity mechanisms
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Guest Editor
Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, 4169-005 Porto, Portugal
Interests: biotechnology and biochemistry; development and compositional characterization and validation of bioactivity of functional ingredients (proteins and biopeptides, antioxidants, probiotics, prebiotics, and antimicrobials); development of novel functional foods; obtain high-added value products; microbiology and biochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Centre for Toxicogenomics and Human Health, Genetics, Oncology and Human Toxicology, NOVA Medical School, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: genotoxicity; cytogenetics; microRNAs; DNA damage and response
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Given the growing research in relation to nutrition and health, certain commodities, such as bioactive-compound-rich fruits and vegetables (BCs), have emerged as having potential health advantages. Foods have long been thought to contribute to health promotion due to their bioactive compounds. The efficient recovery of these BCs, as well as the determination of their effectiveness in marketed goods have been significant obstacles for researchers and food chain participants seeking to produce products that benefit human health. In addition, food extracts are good candidates to replace synthetic substances, which are often thought to have toxicological and carcinogenic consequences due to their natural origin.

The goal of this Special Issue is to highlight existing evidence regarding the various potential benefits of food extract consumption, with a focus on in vivo studies and epidemiological studies, bioavailability and bioaccessibility, and the use of food extracts to improve the nutritional and health-related properties of foods.

Dr. Marta Isabel Correia Coelho
Dr. Manuela Pintado
Dr. António Sebastião Rodrigues
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • food extracts
  • clean label
  • green extraction
  • bioactive compounds
  • bioaccessibility
  • bioavailability
  • pigments
  • health promotion
  • gastrointestinal digestion

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

22 pages, 1286 KiB  
Review
Free Radical-Mediated Grafting of Natural Polysaccharides Such as Chitosan, Starch, Inulin, and Pectin with Some Polyphenols: Synthesis, Structural Characterization, Bioactivities, and Applications—A Review
by Wenting Zhang, Jian Sun, Qiang Li, Chanmin Liu, Fuxiang Niu, Ruixue Yue, Yi Zhang, Hong Zhu, Chen Ma and Shaoying Deng
Foods 2023, 12(19), 3688; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12193688 - 08 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1672
Abstract
Polyphenols and polysaccharides are very important natural products with special physicochemical properties and extensive biological activities. Recently, polyphenol-polysaccharide conjugates have been synthesized to overcome the limitations of polysaccharides and broaden their application range. Grafted copolymers are produced through chemical coupling, enzyme-mediated, and free [...] Read more.
Polyphenols and polysaccharides are very important natural products with special physicochemical properties and extensive biological activities. Recently, polyphenol-polysaccharide conjugates have been synthesized to overcome the limitations of polysaccharides and broaden their application range. Grafted copolymers are produced through chemical coupling, enzyme-mediated, and free radical-mediated methods, among which the free radical-induced grafting reaction is the most cost-effective, ecofriendly, safe, and plausible approach. Here, we review the grafting reactions of polysaccharides mediated by free radicals with various bioactive polyphenols, such as gallic acid (GA), ferulic acid (FA), and catechins. A detailed introduction of the methods and their mechanisms for free radical-mediated grafting is given. Structural characterization methods of the graft products, including thin-layer chromatography (TLC), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) are introduced. Furthermore, the biological properties of polyphenol-polysaccharide conjugates are also presented, including antioxidant, antibacterial, antidiabetic, and neuroprotection activities, etc. Moreover, the potential applications of polyphenol-polysaccharide conjugates are described. Finally, the challenges and research prospects of graft products are summarized. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Benefits of Food Extracts for Human Health)
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