Search results for "Plant foods"

Isotopic Anthropology of Rural German Medieval Diet: Intra- and Inter-population Variability

2016

This study investigates the diet of an eleventh century CE parish community located in northwestern Germany. We assessed the isotopic compositions of human (n = 24) and faunal (n = 17) bone collagen (δ 13Ccol, δ 15Ncol) and human structural carbonate (δ 13Csc) using skeletal material recovered from the Dalheim cemetery. Traditional interpretation of the isotopic data indicates that Dalheim residents likely relied on a C3 plant-based diet and consumed some terrestrial animal products without evidence of marine resource input in the diet. Bivariate and multivariate models used as an additional means to assess diet indicate minor consumption of C4 plant foods in this community. The multivariat…

Anthocyanins: Biosynthesis, Distribution, Ecological Role, and Use of Biostimulants to Increase Their Content in Plant Foods—A Review

2021

In the past century, plant biostimulants have been increasingly used in agriculture as innovative and sustainable practice. Plant biostimulants have been mainly investigated as potential agents able to mitigate abiotic stress. However, few information is available about their ability to influence fruit quality or change fruit phytochemical composition. In particular, very little is known about their effects on anthocyanin synthesis and accumulation. Due to the increasing demand of consumers for healthier foods with high nutraceutical values, this review tries to fill the gap between anthocyanin content and biostimulant application. Here, we elucidate the chemical structure, biosynthetic pat…

Influences on plant nutritional variation and their potential effects on hominin diet selection

2018

The selection of foods in any environment depends on a variety of factors, including the nutrient availability and antifeedant loads in the component habitats. How these nutritional properties vary and covary in time and space is not well known, particularly among wild plant species. We collected plant samples from several habitats within the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa, and measured their macronutrient and antifeedant properties in order to explore how season, habitat, plant type, and plant organ affected the quality of these potential plant foods. Our results have implications for early hominin use of similar habitats.

Technology for plant food support in Antarctica

2011

Clean recovery of antioxidant compounds from plant foods, by-products and algae assisted by ultrasounds processing. Modeling approaches to optimize p…

2015

Ultrasound treatment is an alternative affordable, effective and reproducible method for the improved recovery of bioactive compounds from various processing streams. The objective of this review is to discuss the impact of ultrasound-assisted extraction on the recovery of polyphenols, carotenoids and chlorophylls from vegetal and algae matters. Optimization strategies will need to focus on appropriate equipment design and configuration of ultrasonic components, and extrinsic and intrinsic control parameters including ultrasonic power, temperature and extraction time to maximize the yield and biological activity of the extract. Modeling strategies to characterize and optimize ultrasound pro…

Bioaccessibility of bioactive compounds from fruits and vegetables after thermal and nonthermal processing

2017

Abstract Background The growing demand for nutritious, healthy, and still attractive foods drives the future of food processing to be multipurpose and more sophisticated. Information and insight of the relation between thermal and nonthermal treatments (high pressure processing, high pressure homogenization, pulsed electric fields, etc.) with bioaccessibility of phytochemicals is important not only for researchers, but also for the food industry, thus giving opportunities to develop innovative healthy food products. Scope and approach The food industry finds it crucial to develop processing technologies, which at the same time will preserve and improve the nutritive value of foods and make …

Analytical tools used for the identification and quantification of pectin extracted from plant food matrices, wastes and by-products: A review

2018

Pectin is the methylated ester of polygalacturonic acid and has a wide range of applications. It can be used in food and animal feed as well as in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. Pectin is traditionally used as a gelling agent in fruit-based products, as a stabilizer in some fruit juices and milk drinks and fruit filling for bakery and confectionary products, but their potential applications differ according to their chemical composition. Therefore, at this stage of development, it is of a great importance to find fast, reliable methods to not only identify and quantify pectin, but also to determine its chemical structure and composition when it is extracted from plant matrices, waste…

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

2013

During recent decades, Neanderthal diet has been a major research topic in palaeoanthropology. This has been accelerated by the maturation of different techniques, which have produced a plethora of new information. However, this proliferation of data has led to confusing and contradictory results. Furthermore, most of the ecological dietary studies have been carried out on specimens drawn from different time periods and regions, almost exclusively those characterized by cold, open environmental conditions. Subsistence models based on these fragmentary data have been applied to Neanderthals living in a variety of different regions and environments, even though their dietary strategies may ha…

Metabolite and mineral profiling of “Violetto di Niscemi” and “Spinoso di Menfi” globe artichokes by 1H-NMR and ICP-MS

2016

Globe artichoke has been long considered a nutraceutical food for its valuable content of bioactive compounds. However, beside a well-known polyphenol profile, poor information is available about its metabolite and mineral composition. The aim of this study was to investigate edible parts of Sicilian artichokes, ‘Spinoso di Menfi’ and ‘Violetto di Niscemi’, by 1H NMR and ICP-MS for elucidating these compositional aspects. Although bracts and hearts of both artichokes shared a very similar metabolite pattern, ‘Spinoso di Menfi’ showed a higher number of metabolites, such as amino acids and polyphenols, than ‘Violetto di Niscemi’. ‘Spinoso di Menfi’ was also marked by higher levels of macro- …

Current and New Insights in the Sustainable and Green Recovery of Nutritionally Valuable Compounds from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni.

2015

International audience; The South American plant Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is a great source of noncaloric sweeteners (steviol glycosides), mainly concentrated in its leaves, but also has important antioxidant compounds (vitamin C, polyphenols, chlorophylls, and carotenoids) and other important macro- and micronutrients such as folic acid and all of the essential amino acids except tryptophan. Traditionally, conventional methods have been used to recover nutritionally valuable compounds from plant food matrices. However, nowadays, the need for obtaining greener, sustainable, and viable processes has led both food industries and food scientists to develop new processes in full correspondence…