Innovative and Sustainable Technologies to Enhance the Oxidative Stability of Vegetable Oils

To meet consumers’ demand for natural foods, edible oil producers and food processing industries are searching for alternatives to synthetic antioxidants to protect oils against oxidation. Antioxidant compounds extracted from different plant parts (e.g., flowers, leaves, roots, and seeds) or sourced from agri-food industries, including residues left after food processing, attract consumers for their health properties and natural origins. This review, starting from a literature research analysis, highlights the role of natural antioxidants in the protection of edible oils against oxidation, with an emphasis on the emerging and sustainable strategies to preserve oils against oxidative damage. Sustainability and health are the main concerns of food processing industries. In this context, the aim of this review is to highlight the emerging strategies for the enrichment of edible oils with biomolecules or extracts recovered from plant sources. The use of extracts obtained from vegetable wastes and by-products and the blending with oils extracted from various oil-bearing seeds is also pointed out as a sustainable approach. The safety concerns linked to the use of natural antioxidants for human health are also discussed. This review, using a multidisciplinary approach, provides an updated overview of the chemical, technological, sustainability, and safety aspects linked to oil protection.

Prune intake ameliorates chronic constipation symptoms and causes little discomfort from diarrhea and loose stools: A randomized placebo-controlled trial

Aim: Little data is available regarding the effectiveness of natural foods in treating chronic constipation. We aimed to identify whether prune ameliorates chronic constipation and can be used safely for a relatively long time. Methods: In this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, 84 subjects with chronic constipation, presenting more than 6 months before and persisting for more than 3 months, were randomized to prune (n=42) or placebo (n=42) intake for 8 weeks. We assessed daily Bristol stool form scale (BSFS) scores and stool frequencies and administered the gastrointestinal symptom rating scale (GSRS) questionnaire, as primary outcomes for constipation improvement. Results: The prune group showed significantly decreased rates of hard stool (BSFS1 or 2) and increased rates of normal stool (BSFS 3 or 4) after 1 week, which were more evident after 7 weeks between the two groups. Prune significantly increased stool frequency immediately after 1 week. Furthermore, GSRS of hard stools, flatulence, and incomplete evacuation significantly improved after 4-8 weeks of prune intake, of which constipation and hard stools were significantly reduced compared to the placebo group. In contrast, prune intake did not cause diarrhea, loose stools, or urgent need for defecation during 8 weeks evaluated by GSRS score. We found no abnormal laboratory tests of liver function, renal function, inflammation, or urinalysis after prune intake. Conclusions: Daily prune intake ameliorates chronic constipation, improving quality of life, and causes few diarrhea-related symptoms or side effects. Our results emphasize a new, useful, and easy strategy for chronic constipation. (UMIN ID:000041384)

Heavy Metal Contamination of Natural Foods Is a Serious Health Issue: A Review

Heavy metals play an important role in the homeostasis of living cells. However, these elements induce several adverse environmental effects and toxicities, and therefore seriously affect living cells and organisms. In recent years, some heavy metal pollutants have been reported to cause harmful effects on crop quality, and thus affect both food security and human health. For example, chromium, cadmium, copper, lead, and mercury were detected in natural foods. Evidence suggests that these elements are environmental contaminants in natural foods. Consequently, this review highlights the risks of heavy metal contamination of the soil and food crops, and their impact on human health. The data were retrieved from different databases such as Science Direct, PubMed, Google scholar, and the Directory of Open Access Journals. Results show that vegetable and fruit crops grown in polluted soil accumulate higher levels of heavy metals than crops grown in unpolluted soil. Moreover, heavy metals in water, air, and soil can reduce the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables. A healthy diet requires a rational consumption of foods. Physical, chemical, and biological processes have been developed to reduce heavy metal concentration and bioavailability to reduce heavy metal aggregation in the ecosystem. However, mechanisms by which these heavy metals exhibit their action on human health are not well elucidated. In addition, the positive and negative effects of heavy metals are not very well established, suggesting the need for further investigation.

Separation of Fructosyl Oligosaccharides in Maple Syrup by Using Charged Aerosol Detection

Fructosyl oligosaccharides, including fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS), are gaining popularity as functional oligosaccharides and have been found in various natural products. Our previous study suggested that maple syrup contains an unidentified fructosyl oligosaccharide. Because these saccharides cannot be detected with high sensitivity using derivatization methods, they must be detected directly. As a result, an analytical method based on charged aerosol detection (CAD) that can detect saccharides directly was optimized in order to avoid relying on these structures and physical properties to clarify the profile of fructosyl oligosaccharides in maple syrup. This analytical method is simple and can analyze up to hepta-saccharides in 30 min. This analytical method was also reliable and reproducible with high validation values. It was used to determine the content of saccharides in maple syrup, which revealed that it contained not only fructose, glucose, and sucrose but also FOS such as 1-kestose and nystose. Furthermore, we discovered a fructosyl oligosaccharide called neokestose in maple syrup, which has only been found in a few natural foods. These findings help to shed light on the saccharides profile of maple syrup.

Herbal Preparation (Bromelain, Papain, Curcuma, Black Pepper) Enhances Mineralization and Reduces Glucocorticoid-Induced Osteoporosis in Zebrafish

Natural foods with antioxidant properties, such as curcuma, papain, bromelain and black pepper, have been indicated as a potential natural therapeutic approach against osteoporosis. Zebrafish are an excellent animal model to study the effects of herbal preparations on osteogenesis and bone metabolism, both in physiological and in pathological conditions. Our study was aimed at evaluating whether curcuma-bromelain-papain-pepper herbal preparation (CHP) administered in embryos and adult fish is capable of promoting bone wellness in physiological and osteoporotic conditions. The effect of CHP has been studied in embryonic osteogenesis and glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP) in an adult fish model in which drug treatment induces a bone-loss phenotype in adult scales very similar to that which characterizes the bones of human patients. CHP prevented the onset of the osteoporotic phenotype in the scales of GIOP in adult zebrafish, with the osteoblastic and osteoclastic metabolic activity maintaining unaltered. CHP is also able to attenuate an already established GIOP phenotype, even if the alteration is in an advanced phase, partially restoring the normal balance of the bone markers alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) and stimulating anabolic reparative processes. The results obtained indicated CHP as a potential integrative antioxidant therapy in human bone-loss diseases.

Spanish Spelt Wheat: From an Endangered Genetic Resource to a Trendy Crop

Spelt wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ssp. spelta Thell.) is an ancient wheat that was widely cultivated in the past. This species derived from a cross between emmer wheat (T. turgidum spp. dicoccum Schrank em. Thell.) and Aegilops tauschii Coss. Its main origin was in the Fertile Crescent (Near East), with a secondary center of origin in Europe due to a second hybridization event between emmer and hexaploid wheat. This species has been neglected in most of Europe; however, the desire for more natural foods has driven a revival in interest. Iberian spelt is classified as a geographical group differing to the rest of European spelt. In this review, the particularities, genetic diversity and current situation of Spanish spelt, mainly for quality traits, are discussed.

Application of Green Extraction Techniques for Natural Additives Production

During the last decades, consumers have increased the demand for healthier natural foods with lower presence of chemical additives. One reason of this choice is the controversy about chemical additives possible adverse effects. To fulfill market needs, different techniques have been developed to extract compounds from various raw materials to produce natural additives with different properties (preservatives, emulsifiers, or colorants) and bioactivities. In addition, the growing concern about the effects of climate change has led the development of more sustainable techniques to carry out the extraction. The use of new alternative nonconventional, emerging, or green extraction methodologies has gained considerable attention during the last decade. These novel techniques have been applied to minimize any negative changes in the nutritional, physicochemical or sensory properties of the natural source, while at the same time reducing the environmental impact of the process and gaining competitiveness of the world market. For this purpose, new green extraction methods have been proposed and optimized for the reduction of the consumption of raw materials, solvents, and energy. In this chapter, a revision of different types of green extraction techniques is compiled together with the main factor that can affect extraction-process feasibility and the main challenges and future trends for their development.

Artificial Intelligence in Functional Food Ingredient Discovery and Characterisation: A Focus on Bioactive Plant and Food Peptides

Scientific research consistently demonstrates that diseases may be delayed, treated, or even prevented and, thereby, health may be maintained with health-promoting functional food ingredients (FFIs). Consumers are increasingly demanding sound information about food, nutrition, nutrients, and their associated health benefits. Consequently, a nutrition industry is being formed around natural foods and FFIs, the economic growth of which is increasingly driven by consumer decisions. Information technology, in particular artificial intelligence (AI), is primed to vastly expand the pool of characterised and annotated FFIs available to consumers, by systematically discovering and characterising natural, efficacious, and safe bioactive ingredients (bioactives) that address specific health needs. However, FFI-producing companies are lagging in adopting AI technology for their ingredient development pipelines for several reasons, resulting in a lack of efficient means for large-scale and high-throughput molecular and functional ingredient characterisation. The arrival of the AI-led technological revolution allows for the comprehensive characterisation and understanding of the universe of FFI molecules, enabling the mining of the food and natural product space in an unprecedented manner. In turn, this expansion of bioactives dramatically increases the repertoire of FFIs available to the consumer, ultimately resulting in bioactives being specifically developed to target unmet health needs.

Exploring phytochemicals from Himalayan medicinal plants as novel therapeutic agents

: Over-prescription of medicines leads to some crucial health issues like resistance, non-specificity, etc. Therefore, a human consumes various natural foods, therapeutics, and nutritional supplements to combat this problem. Various therapeutic properties of secondary metabolites such as anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial properties are important in drug discovery and medicinal application. These natural products has replaced synthetic materials, resulting in a great deal of sustainability, rational use and preservation of biodiversity. This review described the potential therapeutic applications of secondary plant metabolites found in Himalayan Indian plants. The database contains 45 plants to treat various diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and microbial infections. Besides authorized ITIS names, it includes Hindi names, family names, and active constituents. The most important information about the molecules can be found in the hyperlinks for the active constituents. It includes structures (two-dimensional and three-dimensional), names and identifiers, chemical and physical properties, spectral information, biochemistry, literature and patents. The review also references various phytochemicals responsible for preventing COVID-19. Despite several challenges in manufacturing natural products, researchers may conduct research to produce successful medicines with few side effects.

High Fructose Intake Contributes to Elevated Diastolic Blood Pressure in Adolescent Girls: Results from The HELENA Study

Background: The association between high fructose consumption and elevated blood pressure continues to be controversial, especially in adolescence. The aim of this study was to assess the association between fructose consumption and elevated blood pressure in an European adolescent population. Methods: A total of 1733 adolescents (mean ± SD age: 14.7 ± 1.2; percentage of girls: 52.8%) were analysed from the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence (HELENA) study in eight European countries. Blood pressure was measured using validated devices and methods for measuring systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Dietary data were recorded via repeated 24 h recalls (using specifically developed HELENA–DIAT software) and converted into pure fructose (monosaccharide form) and total fructose exposure (pure fructose + fructose from sucrose) intake using a specific fructose composition database. Food categories were separated at posteriori in natural vs. were non-natural foods. Elevated BP was defined according to the 90th percentile cut-off values and was compared according to tertiles of fructose intake using univariable and multivariable mixed logistic regression models taking into account confounding factors: centre, sex, age and z-score–BMI, MVPA (Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity) duration, tobacco consumption, salt intake and energy intake. Results: Pure fructose from non-natural foods was only associated with elevated DBP (DBP above the 10th percentile in the highest consuming girls (OR = 2.27 (1.17–4.40); p = 0.015) after adjustment for cofounding factors. Conclusions: Consuming high quantities of non-natural foods was associated with elevated DBP in adolescent girls, which was in part due to high fructose levels in these foods categories. The consumption of natural foods containing fructose, such as whole fruits, does not impact blood pressure and should continue to remain a healthy dietary habit.