Bioactive Compounds in Foods
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2020) | Viewed by 31055
Special Issue Editors
Interests: phytochemicals; food quality; saponins; complex carbohydrates
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: asparagus; flavonoids; hydroxycinnamates; antioxidants; phytochemical profiling; agricultural by-product valorization; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Food bioactives are a group of various molecules that are distinct from nutrients though have biological activity that is beneficial for human and animal health when included in the diet. They may have a natural origin—such as those present in animals, plants, and microorganisms—or be synthetic. They can also occur as a component of a given food or be added as a supplement. Because of their many potential health benefits, food bioactives have become one of the hottest new areas of research in food and nutrition.
The amount and type of bioactives present in food depend on genetic (species, varieties, and breeds) as well as on environmental factors, such as cultivation or breeding conditions, time of collection, processing, and storage of the final food. Studying the best combination of these factors to optimize the bioactives content is, hence, a very relevant subject.
The preponderant agronomic practices in recent decades have led to a significant decrease in agrobiodiversity. According to the FAO, 75% of the world’s food is generated only from 12 plants and 5 animal species. This loss of agrobiodiversity has dramatically decreased the content and variety of bioactive compounds in our food. Consequently, the search for new bioactive compounds in so-called minor and under-utilized crops and livestock, as well as the study of their applications in the field of functional foods and nutraceuticals, deserve attention.
One of the fastest growing sectors in recent years within the food industry is the production of bioactives as either ingredients in functional foods or as nutraceuticals for human consumption. The development of better methods for the isolation and purification of bioactives from their respective sources—to improve their purity and quality as well as their sustainability—is a key subject.
Finally, studies of the efficacy and safety of food bioactives are necessary, along with those related to their interaction with the gut microbiota.
Dr. Rafael Guillén Bejarano
Dr. María Rocío Rodríguez Arcos
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- bioactive food ingredients
- green extraction technologies
- bioaccessibility and bioavailability
- bioactivity
- efficacy and safety of food ingredients
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