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Spectroscopic Analysis of Bioactive Components and Chemical Constituents from Edible Plants

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Analytical Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 3864

Special Issue Editors

School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD, Australia
Interests: near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS); horticultural production; plant physiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD, Australia
Interests: analytical chemistry; bioactive compounds; organic chemistry
Department of Integrative Food, Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea
Interests: chemometrics; spectroscopy; food science; phytochemicals; food irradiation; green extraction and processing; food process modelling and optimisation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recent years have seen increasing interest in “functional foods”, which contain high levels of biologically active compounds with demonstrated health benefits. These may include foods with high levels of vitamins, beneficial fatty acids, anthocyanins or phenolic compounds, amongst others. These provide food products with health benefits beyond that which would be expected from their basic nutritional properties.

Traditional analytical techniques for analysing specific compounds in food products suffer from several drawbacks, including their high cost, extended sample preparation requirements, production of solvent wastes, lengthy analysis times, and requirements of highly trained operators. Consequently, they are not suited to the rapid, real-time screening of bioactive compounds in food products. This is where spectroscopic techniques, such as infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy or fluorescence spectroscopy, may be useful. These techniques use the chemical information contained in light wavelengths to probe the composition of the sample, allowing for real-time, non-destructive and non-invasive analysis.

This Special Issue aims to bring together research which uses spectroscopic (light-based) techniques for the analysis of specific chemical constituents in food crops, particularly with respect to bioactive compounds. We are happy to consider original research articles as well as well-constructed review articles.

Thank you for your interest.

Prof. Dr. Kerry Brian Walsh
Dr. Mani Naiker
Dr. Kashif Ameer
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. Molecules 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 2700 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

  • infrared (IR) spectroscopy
  • near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy
  • raman spectroscopy
  • ultraviolet–visible (UV/Vis) spectroscopy
  • fluorescence spectroscopy
  • bioactive compounds
  • functional foods
  • phenolic compounds and polyphenols

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 8341 KiB  
Article
Influence of 60Co-γ Irradiation on the Components of Essential Oil of Curcuma
by Chang Lei, Jianjun Liu, Wenchao Zhou, Wei Zhou, Shunxiang Li and Dan Huang
Molecules 2023, 28(15), 5877; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28155877 - 04 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 717
Abstract
The gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS) method is a new technology for detecting volatile organic compounds. This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of volatile aroma compounds of Curcuma essential oils (EOs) after 60Co radiation by GC-IMS. Dosages of 0, [...] Read more.
The gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS) method is a new technology for detecting volatile organic compounds. This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of volatile aroma compounds of Curcuma essential oils (EOs) after 60Co radiation by GC-IMS. Dosages of 0, 5, and 10 kGy of 60Co were used to analyze EOs of Curcuma after 60Co irradiation (named EZ-1, EZ-2, and EZ-3). The odor fingerprints of volatile organic compounds in different EOs of Curcuma samples were constructed by headspace solid-phase microextraction and GC-IMS after irradiation. The differences in odor fingerprints of EOs were compared by principal component analysis (PCA). A total of 92 compounds were detected and 65 compounds were identified, most of which were ketones, aldehydes, esters, and a small portion were furan compounds. It was found that the volatile matter content of 0 kGy and 5 kGy was closer, and the use of 10 kGy 60Co irradiation would have an unstable effect on the EOs. In summary, it is not advisable to use a higher dose when using 60Co irradiation for sterilization of Curcuma. Due to the small gradient of irradiation dose used in the experiment, the irradiation dose can be adjusted appropriately according to the required sterilization requirements during the production and storage process of Curcuma to obtain the best irradiation conditions. GC-IMS has the advantages of GC’s high separation capability and IMS’s fast response, high resolution, and high sensitivity, and the sample requires almost no pretreatment; it can be widely used in the analysis of traditional Chinese medicines containing volatile components. It is shown that irradiation technology has good application prospects in the sterilization of traditional Chinese medicines, but the changes in irradiation dose and chemical composition must be paid attention to. Full article
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Review

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33 pages, 1796 KiB  
Review
The Use of Infrared Spectroscopy for the Quantification of Bioactive Compounds in Food: A Review
by Joel B. Johnson, Kerry B. Walsh, Mani Naiker and Kashif Ameer
Molecules 2023, 28(7), 3215; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28073215 - 04 Apr 2023
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2789
Abstract
Infrared spectroscopy (wavelengths ranging from 750–25,000 nm) offers a rapid means of assessing the chemical composition of a wide range of sample types, both for qualitative and quantitative analyses. Its use in the food industry has increased significantly over the past five decades [...] Read more.
Infrared spectroscopy (wavelengths ranging from 750–25,000 nm) offers a rapid means of assessing the chemical composition of a wide range of sample types, both for qualitative and quantitative analyses. Its use in the food industry has increased significantly over the past five decades and it is now an accepted analytical technique for the routine analysis of certain analytes. Furthermore, it is commonly used for routine screening and quality control purposes in numerous industry settings, albeit not typically for the analysis of bioactive compounds. Using the Scopus database, a systematic search of literature of the five years between 2016 and 2020 identified 45 studies using near-infrared and 17 studies using mid-infrared spectroscopy for the quantification of bioactive compounds in food products. The most common bioactive compounds assessed were polyphenols, anthocyanins, carotenoids and ascorbic acid. Numerous factors affect the accuracy of the developed model, including the analyte class and concentration, matrix type, instrument geometry, wavelength selection and spectral processing/pre-processing methods. Additionally, only a few studies were validated on independently sourced samples. Nevertheless, the results demonstrate some promise of infrared spectroscopy for the rapid estimation of a wide range of bioactive compounds in food matrices. Full article
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