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30th Anniversary of Molecules—Recent Advances in Food Chemistry

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 682

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences (CITAB), Institute for Innovation, Capacity Building and Sustainability of Agri-Food Production (Inov4Agro), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Interests: by-products; bioactive compounds; circular economy; industrial symbiosis; HLPC-MS; spectroscopic analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
CBQF—Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry—Associated Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Portuguese Catholic University, Porto, Portugal
Interests: carotenoids; agro-industrial by-products valorization; green extraction technologies bioactive compounds; functional foods; bioaccessibility; toxicokinetic; circular bioeconomy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The year 2026 will mark the 30th anniversary of Molecules, and to celebrate this exciting milestone, we have set up a Special Issue, “30th Anniversary of Molecules—Recent Advances in Food Chemistry”, with the aim of publishing cutting-edge research in our Section.

Food Chemistry is a multidisciplinary field that focuses on the molecular basis of food components, their interactions, transformations, and functions. This includes research on functional foods, nutraceuticals, traditional edible medicines, and food-derived bioactive compounds. The Section is particularly interested in studies related to the identification, characterization, and evaluation of molecules within the food matrix that contribute to food quality, safety, nutrition, and health-promoting properties.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to feature the latest, high-quality, advanced research and knowledge contributed by various research groups working on food chemistry.

Contributions to this Special Issue may include—but are not limited to—the isolation and structural elucidation of food-related compounds, analytical profiling of ingredients using advanced molecular techniques, studies on bioactivity and structure–activity relationships, fermentation and processing-related chemical changes, bioaccessibility and bioavailability assessments, and research on food safety, packaging, additives, and contaminants, all based on molecular-level investigations.

We warmly invite and encourage all research groups working across the diverse fields of food chemistry to contribute to this important and celebratory Special Issue.

Dr. Ana Novo Barros
Dr. Marta 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. 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

  • functional foods
  • nutraceuticals
  • bioactive compounds
  • analytical techniques
  • by-products
  • food chemistry

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 1368 KB  
Article
Ionizing Radiation-Induced Structural Modification of Isoegomaketone and Its Anti-Inflammatory Activity
by Euna Choi, Chang Hyun Jin, Trung Huy Ngo, Jisu Park, Joo-Won Nam and Ah-Reum Han
Molecules 2025, 30(17), 3466; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules30173466 - 23 Aug 2025
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Abstract
Isoegomaketone [(E)-1-(furan-3-yl)-4-methylpent-2-en-1-one; 1] is abundant in the essential oil of Perilla species and exhibits various biological activities, such as anticancer and anti-inflammatory effects. In order to discover compounds with reduced toxicity or enhanced biological activity through structural modification of natural [...] Read more.
Isoegomaketone [(E)-1-(furan-3-yl)-4-methylpent-2-en-1-one; 1] is abundant in the essential oil of Perilla species and exhibits various biological activities, such as anticancer and anti-inflammatory effects. In order to discover compounds with reduced toxicity or enhanced biological activity through structural modification of natural product-derived components, isoegomaketone was irradiated with an electron beam at five different doses, and (±)-8-methoxy-perilla ketone (2) was obtained with the highest yield of 3.8% (w/w) at 80 kGy. Its structure was identified by one-dimensional and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and high-resolution chemical ionization mass spectrometry. Compound 2 inhibited nitric oxide production and inducible nitric oxide synthase mRNA expression in a dose-dependent manner in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. It also dose-dependently suppressed the mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory mediators such as IL-1β, IFN-β, and MCP-1, while having no significant effect on IL-6 mRNA levels. Furthermore, ELISA analysis demonstrated that 2 reduced MCP-1 protein expression but did not affect the protein level of TNF-α or IL-6. This study provides a reference for the structural analysis of compounds related to 2 by presenting NMR data acquired with chloroform-d, and is the first to report the anti-inflammatory properties of 2. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 30th Anniversary of Molecules—Recent Advances in Food Chemistry)
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