Search results for "Functional food"
showing 10 items of 88 documents
Development of novel functional ingredients: Need for testing systems and solutions with Caenorhabditis elegans
2016
Abstract Background Nutrition is increasingly understood as a means of maintaining health and well-being and the market for functional foods keeps growing in double-digits. Functional nutrition is seen by many as the interphase between food and pharmaceuticals. In fact, players from both sides are increasingly making moves in the form of strategic alliances, M&A operations and co-investments which are bringing the two realms closer together. Food regulations to prove safety of novel ingredients or to support health claims are every day more stringent and the general public is also increasingly informed about the science, risks and benefits of what they eat. All this presents a magnificent o…
Targeting aging with functional food: Pasta with opuntia single-arm pilot study
2018
Interventions to extend life span represent the new perspective in aging investigation. Healthy dietary habits are important modifiable factors that can favor a healthy aging phenotype. Many studies have demonstrated benefits for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus resulting from the traditional Mediterranean foods. Opuntia Ficus Indica (OFI), widespread in the Mediterranean basin, belongs to the Cactaceae family. It is known for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Moreover, products containing extracts from OFI fruits or cladodes have been used to control obesity and other metabolic parameters, such as glycemia and lipid profile. The aim of this study was to analy…
Fibres as functional foods and the effects on gut hormones: The example of β-glucans in a single arm pilot study
2018
Abstract Nutritional styles as Mediterranean and DASH diets are associated with lower incidences of certain chronic diseases and long life expectancy. The reason lays on their different contribution in fibers, polyphenols (from vegetables and fruit) and proteins. Barley is high fiber cereal that contains high amount of β-glucans and insoluble fibers that it was recognized having healthy benefits. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of β-glucans intake on glycaemic response, cholesterol and intestinal hormones levels. A single arm pilot study was performed with ten healthy individual which, consumed pasta enriched with 6% β-glucans for 30 days. Blood was collected at fasting and…
Litchi chinensis as a Functional Food and a Source of Antitumor Compounds: An Overview and a Description of Biochemical Pathways.
2017
Litchi is a tasty fruit that is commercially grown for food consumption and nutritional benefits in various parts of the world. Due to its biological activities, the fruit is becoming increasingly known and deserves attention not only for its edible part, the pulp, but also for its peel and seed that contain beneficial substances with antioxidant, cancer preventive, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory functions. Although literature demonstrates the biological activity of Litchi components in reducing tumor cell viability in in vitro or in vivo models, data about the biochemical mechanisms responsible for these effects are quite fragmentary. This review specifically describes, in a comprehe…
Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) as a functional food additive in egg pasta: Enrichment and bioaccessibility of Lutein and β-carotene
2018
Abstract The use of stinging nettles as an ingredient in egg pasta has been evaluated with respect to food enrichment with carotenoids. Bioaccessibility of lutein and β-carotene has been estimated by dynamic simulation of the digestion process, with particular attention to duodenum and colon stages. Higher bioaccessibility for the two carotenoids occurs between 2 and 24 h of colonic fermentation and it is around 35% for lutein and 10% for β-carotene. However, the results reveal that the food matrix has a significant role in carotenoid release during the digestion process. In general, nettle enriched pasta has a lower carotenoid bioaccessibility than dietary supplement at duodenum and after …
Human Intrinsic Factor Expression for Bioavailable Vitamin B12 Enrichment in Microalgae
2018
Dietary supplements and functional foods are becoming increasingly popular complements to regular diets. A recurring ingredient is the essential cofactor vitamin B12(B12). Microalgae are making their way into the dietary supplement and functional food market but do not produce B12, and their B12 content is very variable. In this study, the suitability of using the human B12-binding protein intrinsic factor (IF) to enrich bioavailable B12 using microalgae was tested. The IF protein was successfully expressed from the nuclear genome of the model microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the addition of an N-terminal ARS2 signal peptide resulted in efficient IF secretion to the medium. Co-abunda…
Quality characteristics and in vitro digestibility study of barley flour enriched ditalini pasta
2016
A ditalini pasta with a mixture of durum wheat and beta-glucan enriched barley flour (BF) (60/40%, w/w) was found to have a final content of 5% beta-glucan (BF-ditalini). Main quality parameters of BF-ditalini, water uptake and starch-protein texture, were comparable with those of 100% durum wheat ditalini (control). After in vitro simulated intestinal digestion, the content of beta-glucan in the post intestinal (PI) supernatant of BF-ditalini processed with its cooking water (soup) was six fold higher than that of pasta asciutta. BF-ditalini soup, but not pasta asciutta, strongly delayed the hydrolysis of the starch, without difference of viscosity between PI supernatant and control. PI su…
Employ of Citrus By-product as Fat Replacer Ingredient for Bakery Confectionery Products
2020
Citrus fruits processing is one of the foremost industrial activities in Sicily and the main residual by-product consists in peels and seeds (known as "pastazzo"). Traditionally this by-product has been used for different purposes, and only most recently, it has been described as source of a wide range of healthy bioactive compounds and dietary fibers. In the present work, a debittered food grade orange fiber (DOF), extracted from orange juice by-product, was experimentally obtained and tested as fat-replacer at different percentages (30, 50, and 70%) in bakery confectionery products (brioches). The DOF showed high total fiber content, low water activity and a high water binding capacity. T…
Beta-glucans and cancer: The influence of inflammation and gut peptide
2017
Dietary β-glucans are soluble fibers with potentially health-promoting effects. Gut peptides are important signals in the regulation of energy and glucose homeostasis. This article reviews the effects of different enriched β-glucan food consumption on immune responses, inflammation, gut hormone and cancer. Gut hormones are influenced by enriched β-glucan food consumption and levels of such peptide as YY, ghrelin, glucagon-like peptide 1 and 2 in humans influence serum glucose concentration as well as innate and adaptive immunity. Cancer cell development is also regulated by obesity and glucose dishomeostasy that are influenced by β-glucan food consumption that in turn regulated gut hormones.
Citrus sinensis and Vitis vinifera Protect Cardiomyocytes from Doxorubicin-Induced Oxidative Stress: Evaluation of Onconutraceutical Potential of Veg…
2020
Abstract: The interest towards nutraceuticals able to counteract drug side effects is continuously growing in current chemotherapeutic protocols. In the present study, we demonstrated that smoothies containing mixtures of Citrus sinensis and Vitis vinifera L. cv. Aglianico N, two typical fruits of the Mediterranean diet, possess bioactive polyphenols that protect cardiomyocytes against doxorubicin-induced oxidative stress. The polyphenolic extracts isolated from Citrus sinensis- and Vitis vinifera-based functional smoothies were deeply characterized by Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry methods. Subsequently, the functional smoothies and relative mixtures were tested to verify their ab…