Submit to Foods Review for Foods Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Advances in Strategies to Improve Stability, Delivery, and Bioavailability of Bioactive Compounds in Foods

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Physics and (Bio)Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (8 September 2023) | Viewed by 10444

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sofia F. Reis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Chemistry Department, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: food chemistry; polysaccharide chemistry; polyphenol chemistry; structural analysis; by-products valorisation; functional foods; food ingredients; nutraceuticals; prebiotics; delivery systems

Dr. José A. Lopes da Silva

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor

Chemistry Department, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: functional properties of polysaccharides and proteins; rheology and texture of agro-food products; edible biopolymer films and coatings; electrospun (bio)polymer nanofibers with potential application in biomedical and food-related areas; interfacial properties of colloids and ionic liquids

Dr. Elisabete Coelho

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Chemistry Department, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: yeast polysaccharides; oligosaccharides; by-products; food; glucans; arabinoxylans; mannoproteins; pectic polysaccharides

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The diverse family of bioactive compounds already has a well-established positive connotation in human nutrition. In addition to dietary consumption of fruits and vegetables rich in these compounds, they have received increasing attention for being used as ingredients in foods to promote health and well-being, either by the addition of plant-based flours or isolated compounds and/or extracts. However, their use in foods is limited due to undesired sensory attributes they may confer to the final food products, or to their biochemical sensitivity which easily leads to loss of bioavailability.

Therefore, the topics covered by this Special Issue include strategies for the incorporation of bioactive compounds in food and their targeted site-specific delivery, emphasizing the development of carrier systems able to improve their stability, including the movement through the gastrointestinal tract, to increase their bioaccessibility and bioavailability, also providing suitable sensory profiles to the food systems where they are incorporated.

Dr. Sofia F. Reis
Dr. José A. Lopes da Silva
Dr. Elisabete Coelho
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

polyphenols
carotenoids
polysaccharides
prebiotics
encapsulation
liposomes
electrospinning
biopolymers
nutraceuticals
nanotechnology

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers

Order results

Result details

Show export options Show export options

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

11 pages, 1279 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Co-Encapsulation of Multiple Polyphenols in Plant-Based Milks: Formulation, Gastrointestinal Stability, and Bioaccessibility

by Bingjing Zheng, Hualu Zhou and David Julian McClements

Foods 2023, 12(18), 3432; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12183432 - 15 Sep 2023

Viewed by 1391

Abstract

Plant-based milk is particularly suitable for fortification with multiple nutraceuticals because it contains both hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains that can accommodate molecules with different polarities. In this study, we fortified soymilk with three common polyphenols (curcumin, quercetin, and resveratrol) using three pH-driven approaches. We compared the effectiveness of these three different approaches for co-encapsulating polyphenols. The gastrointestinal fate of the polyphenol-fortified soymilks was then studied by passing them through a simulated mouth, stomach, and small intestine, including the stability and bioaccessibility of polyphenols. All three pH-driven approaches were suitable for co-encapsulating multiple polyphenols at a high encapsulation efficiency, especially for the curcumin and resveratrol. The polyphenol-loaded delivery systems exhibited similar changes in particle size, charge, stability, and bioaccessibility as they passed through the mouth, stomach, and intestinal phases. The bioaccessibility of the co-encapsulated polyphenols was much greater than that of crystallized polyphenols dispersed in water. The poor bioaccessibility of the crystallized polyphenols was attributed to their low solubility in water, which made them more difficult to solubilize within mixed micelles. This study underscores the feasibility of pH-driven approaches for encapsulating a variety of polyphenols into the same plant-based delivery system. These fortified plant-based milks may therefore be designed to provide specific health benefits to consumers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Strategies to Improve Stability, Delivery, and Bioavailability of Bioactive Compounds in Foods)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 2724 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Decreasing the Crystallinity and Degree of Polymerization of Cellulose Increases Its Susceptibility to Enzymatic Hydrolysis and Fermentation by Colon Microbiota

by Karel Thielemans, Yamina De Bondt, Luke Comer, Jeroen Raes, Nadia Everaert, Bert F. Sels and Christophe M. Courtin

Foods 2023, 12(5), 1100; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12051100 - 04 Mar 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2190

Abstract

Cellulose can be isolated from various raw materials and agricultural side streams and might help to reduce the dietary fiber gap in our diets. However, the physiological benefits of cellulose upon ingestion are limited beyond providing fecal bulk. It is barely fermented by the microbiota in the human colon due to its crystalline character and high degree of polymerization. These properties make cellulose inaccessible to microbial cellulolytic enzymes in the colon. In this study, amorphized and depolymerized cellulose samples with an average degree of polymerization of less than 100 anhydroglucose units and a crystallinity index below 30% were made from microcrystalline cellulose using mechanical treatment and acid hydrolysis. This amorphized and depolymerized cellulose showed enhanced digestibility by a cellulase enzyme blend. Furthermore, the samples were fermented more extensively in batch fermentations using pooled human fecal microbiota, with minimal fermentation degrees up to 45% and a more than eight-fold increase in short-chain fatty acid production. While this enhanced fermentation turned out to be highly dependent on the microbial composition of the fecal pool, the potential of engineering cellulose properties to increased physiological benefit was demonstrated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Strategies to Improve Stability, Delivery, and Bioavailability of Bioactive Compounds in Foods)

► Show Figures

Graphical abstract

15 pages, 1855 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Feasibility of Brewer’s Spent Yeast Microcapsules as Targeted Oral Carriers

by Sofia F. Reis, Vitor J. Martins, Rita Bastos, Tânia Lima, Viviana G. Correia, Benedita A. Pinheiro, Lisete M. Silva, Angelina S. Palma, Paula Ferreira, Manuel Vilanova, Manuel A. Coimbra and Elisabete Coelho

Foods 2023, 12(2), 246; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12020246 - 05 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1626

Abstract

Brewer’s spent yeast (BSY) microcapsules have a complex network of cell-wall polysaccharides that are induced by brewing when compared to the baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) microcapsules. These are rich in (β1→3)-glucans and covalently linked to (α1→4)- and (β1→4)-glucans in addition to residual mannoproteins. S. cerevisiae is often used as a drug delivery system due to its immunostimulatory potential conferred by the presence of (β1→3)-glucans. Similarly, BSY microcapsules could also be used in the encapsulation of compounds or drug delivery systems with the advantage of resisting digestion conferred by (β1→4)-glucans and promoting a broader immunomodulatory response. This work aims to study the feasibility of BSY microcapsules that are the result of alkali and subcritical water extraction processes, as oral carriers for food and biomedical applications by (1) evaluating the resistance of BSY microcapsules to in vitro digestion (IVD), (2) their recognition by the human Dectin-1 immune receptor after IVD, and (3) the recognition of IVD-solubilized material by different mammalian immune receptors. IVD digested 44–63% of the material, depending on the extraction process. The non-digested material, despite some visible agglutination and deformation of the microcapsules, preserved their spherical shape and was enriched in (β1→3)-glucans. These microcapsules were all recognized by the human Dectin-1 immune receptor. The digested material was differentially recognized by a variety of lectins of the immune system related to (β1→3)-glucans, glycogen, and mannans. These results show the potential of BSY microcapsules to be used as oral carriers for food and biomedical applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Strategies to Improve Stability, Delivery, and Bioavailability of Bioactive Compounds in Foods)

► Show Figures

Graphical abstract

16 pages, 4696 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Lutein-Fortified Plant-Based Egg Analogs Designed to Improve Eye Health: Formation, Characterization, In Vitro Digestion, and Bioaccessibility

by Giang Vu, Xiaoke Xiang, Hualu Zhou and David Julian McClements

Foods 2023, 12(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12010002 - 20 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2496

Abstract

Lutein is a carotenoid found in real eggs that has been reported to have beneficial effects on eye health by reducing the risk of age-related macular degeneration. However, lutein is not often included in plant based (PB) egg analogs. It would, therefore, be advantageous to fortify PB eggs with this health-promoting carotenoid. Moreover, lutein is a natural pigment with a bright red to yellowish color depending on its concentration and environment. It can, therefore, also be used as a plant-based pigment to mimic the desirable appearance of egg yolk. Some of the main challenges to using lutein as a nutraceutical and pigment in PB foods are its poor water-solubility, chemical stability, and bioavailability. In this study, we encapsulated lutein in oil-in-water emulsions, which were then utilized to formulate whole egg analogs. Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) protein isolated from a sustainable plant-based source (duckweed) was used to mimic the thermally irreversible heat-set gelling properties of globular egg proteins, with the aim of obtaining a similar cookability and texture as real eggs. The lutein content (80 mg/100 g) of the egg analogs was designed to be at a level where there should be health benefits. The protein (12.5 wt.%) and oil (10 wt.%) contents of the egg analogs were selected to match those of real egg. The effects of oil droplet size and oil type on the bioaccessibility of the encapsulated lutein were examined using the INFOGEST in vitro digestion model. For the emulsions formulated with long chain triglycerides (LCTs, corn oil), lutein bioaccessibility significantly increased when the initial droplet diameter decreased from around 10 to 0.3 μm, which was attributed to more rapid and complete digestion of the lipid phase for smaller droplets. For medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), however, no impact of droplet size on lutein bioaccessibility was observed. A high lutein bioaccessibility (around 80%) could be obtained for both LCTs and MCTs emulsions containing small oil droplets. Thus, both types of oil can be good carriers for lutein. In summary, we have shown that lutein-fortified PB eggs with good digestibility and bioaccessibility can be created, which may play an important role in ensuring the health of those adopting a more plant-based diet. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Strategies to Improve Stability, Delivery, and Bioavailability of Bioactive Compounds in Foods)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

21 pages, 1523 KiB

Open AccessReview

Research Progress of Protein-Based Bioactive Substance Nanoparticles

by Mengqing Han, Kunlun Liu, Xin Liu, Muhammad Tayyab Rashid, Huiyan Zhang and Meiyue Wang

Foods 2023, 12(16), 2999; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12162999 - 09 Aug 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1987

Abstract

Bioactive substances exhibit various physiological activities—such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anticancer activities—and have great potential for application in food, pharmaceuticals, and nutraceuticals. However, the low solubility, chemical instability, and low bioavailability of bioactive substances limit their application in the food industry. Using nanotechnology to prepare protein nanoparticles to encapsulate and deliver active substances is a promising approach due to the abundance, biocompatibility, and biodegradability of proteins. Common protein-based nanocarriers include nano-emulsions, nano-gels, nanoparticles, and nano complexes. In this review, we give an overview of protein-based nanoparticle fabrication methods, highlighting their pros and cons. Additionally, we discuss the applications and current issues regarding the utilization of protein-based nanoparticles in the food industry. Finally, we provide perspectives on future development directions, with a focus on classifying bioactive substances and their functional properties. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Strategies to Improve Stability, Delivery, and Bioavailability of Bioactive Compounds in Foods)

► Show Figures

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Advances in Strategies to Improve Stability, Delivery, and Bioavailability of Bioactive Compounds in Foods

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (5 papers)

Research

Review

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI