Bioactive Lipids: Advances in Green Extraction Technologies and Bioassays

Dear Colleagues,

Bioactive lipids, such as regulatory molecules, are of utmost importance in human health. Although they can be naturally present in some foods, their inclusion as specific functional ingredients is a valuable way to increase the nutritional and commercial value of food products.

Due to the heterogeneity of compounds and the multiplicity of molecular species, lipid extraction has always been a challenge. Gravimetric solvent extraction methodologies do not obey the principles of Green Chemistry, focused on the reduction of solvents, aiming to minimize environmental impacts without compromising extraction efficiency and costs. In this context, interest in the use of emerging technologies in the selective extraction of bioactive lipids has evolved over the past few decades, moving towards techniques that take advantage of waves or pressure, among others, thus prioritizing the Principles of Green Chemistry.

After extraction, molecules’ bioactivities are screened based on established in vitro bioassays, in which the most promising molecules continue toward more advanced cell-based and animal assays. Unfortunately, many of these bioassays have been designed for hydrophilic molecules, and their adaptation to lipophilic ones does not always produce reliable and trustable results. Therefore, strategies to adapt and standardize the currently used bioassays to avoid interferences, artifacts, and false positives are urgently needed.

This Special Issue intends to revisit the current research done on the obtention of bioactive lipid extracts, from conventional or alternative sources (e.g., byproducts), and validation of their functional properties. Topics within its scope include (i) advances in green extraction processes and (ii) critical analysis on the adaptation of bioassays (initially developed for hydrophilic substances) to evaluation of lipid extracts.

As Guest Editors of this Special Issue, we cordially invite researchers to submit original research articles and reviews on their current research, addressing recent advances in analytical methodologies for green extraction of bioactive lipids and bioassay standardization.

Dr. Ana P. Carvalho
Dr. Clara Grosso
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Green extraction processes
• Emerging technologies
• Functional lipids
• Omega-3 PUFAs
• Phospholipids
• Sterols and stanols
• Nutraceuticals
• Lipid byproducts
• Bioassays