Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.): An overview of the potentials of the Golden Grain and socio-economic and environmental aspects of its cultivation and marketization

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is native to the Andean region and has attracted a global growing interest due its unique nutritional value. The protein content of quinoa grains is higher than other cereals while it has better distribution of essential amino acids. It can be used as an alternative to milk proteins. Additionally, quinoa contains a high amount of essential fatty acids, minerals, vitamins, dietary fibers, and carbohydrates with beneficial hypoglycemic effects while being gluten-free. Furthermore, the quinoa plant is resistant to cold, salt, and drought, which leaves no doubt as to why it has been called the “golden grain”. On that account, production of quinoa and its products followed an increasing trend that gained attraction in 2013, as it was proclaimed to be the international year of quinoa. In this respect, this review provides an overview of the published results regarding the nutritional and biological properties of quinoa that have been cultivated in different parts of the world during the last two decades. This review sheds light on how traditional quinoa processing and products evolved and are being adopted into novel food processing and modern food products, as well as noting the potential of side stream processing of quinoa by-products in various industrial sectors. Furthermore, this review moves beyond the technological aspects of quinoa production by addressing the socio-economic and environmental challenges of its production, consumption, and marketizations to reflect a holistic view of promoting the production and consumption of quinoa.We acknowledge the EIT Food education program which provided the funds for an open access publication in the context of the winning prize for top students of the summer school “Food Tech Transitions: reconnecting agri-food, technology, and society” (project number 19162).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Synergic Influence of Parameters Involved in the Polymeric Nanoparticle Preparation on the Efficacy of Photodynamic Therapy

The challenge was always great for lipophilic photosensitizer use in the photodynamic therapy (PDT) for treatment of internal body diseases. Photosensitizer metabolism in liver, incompatibility of the molecules in the gastric acid, aggregation in the bloodstream, opsonization of molecules and phagocyting process hamper the application of the free lipophilic photosensitizer in disease treatment using PDT. This problem has been partially resolved using the drug delivery system to encapsulate the photosensitizer. Many studies have been reported using polymeric nanoparticles to encapsulate the lipophilic photosensitizer showing excellent results for PDT, but few nanoparticulate formulations are available at the pharmacies. The absence of deep knowledge about the influence of synergic effect of parameters used in the nanoparticle preparation on its properties, the photobleaching process of encapsulated photosensitizer and the molecule aggregation into the nanoparticle can decrease the photodynamic efficacy for the lipophilic photosensitizer. Our research group has studied the influence of many parameters on the nanoparticulate properties of several encapsulated phthalocyanines and porphyrin using factorial design, evaluating the free and encapsulated compound aggregation, efficacy to reduce the viability of cancer cells, the photooxidation of the biomolecules and the influence of photobleaching. This work shows the most important results to be consider in the optimization of the polymeric nanoparticle