Protein-based nanostructures for food applications

Proteins are receiving significant attention for the production of structures for the encapsulation of active compounds, aimed at their use in food products. Proteins are one of the most used biomaterials in the food industry due to their nutritional value, non-toxicity, biodegradability, and ability to create new textures, in particular, their ability to form gel particles that can go from macro- to nanoscale. This review points out the different techniques to obtain protein-based nanostructures and their use to encapsulate and release bioactive compounds, while also presenting some examples of food grade proteins, the mechanism of formation of the nanostructures, and the behavior under different conditions, such as in the gastrointestinal tract.Ricardo Pereira acknowledges his Post-Doctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/81887/2011) to the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal). This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2019 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020-Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Glycation of Animal Proteins Via Maillard Reaction and Their Bioactivity

Nowadays there has been an increase in the need to incorporate foods in our diets that have optimal and palatable organoleptic characteristics as well as complex interaction in human biological processes that provide beneficial properties to human health. Animal foods and their by-products are an important source of macro- and micronutrients and also a great protein source; nevertheless the consumption of these products has been decreasing since they have been associated with the generation of chronic degenerative diseases; therefore the food industry has sought to innovate toward the generation of healthier foods. This chapter presents an overview of the glycation of proteins of animal origin via the Maillard reaction emphasizing on their posttranslational modifications and their possible uses in food, based on their bioactivity

New functionalities of Maillard reaction products as emulsifiers and encapsulating agents, and the processing parameters: a brief review

Non-enzymatic browning has been a wide and interesting research area in the food industry, ranging from the complexity of the reaction to its applications in the food industry as well as its ever-debatable health effects. This review provides a new perspective to the Maillard reaction apart from its ubiquitous function in enhancing food flavour, taste and appearance. It focuses on the recent application of Maillard reaction products as an inexpensive and excellent source of emulsifiers as well as superior encapsulating matrices for the entrapment of bioactive compounds. Additionally, it will also discuss the latest approaches employed to perform the Maillard reaction as well as several important reaction parameters that need to be taken into consideration when conducting the Maillard reaction

First comprehensive contribution to medical ethnobotany of Western Pyrenees

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An ethnobotanical and medical study was carried out in the Navarre Pyrenees, an area known both for its high biological diversity and its cultural significance.</p> <p>As well as the compilation of an ethnopharmacological catalogue, a quantitative ethnobotanical comparison has been carried out in relation to the outcomes from other studies about the Pyrenees. A review of all drugs used in the area has also been carried out, through a study of the monographs published by the institutions and organizations responsible for the safety and efficacy of medicinal plants (WHO, ESCOP, and the E Commission of the German Department of Health) in order to ascertain the extent to which the Navarre Pyrenees ethnopharmacology has been officially evaluated.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fieldwork was carried out over two years, from November 2004 to December 2006. During that time we interviewed 88 local people in 40 villages. Information was collected using semi-structured ethnobotanical interviews and the data was analyzed using quantitave indexes: Ethnobotonicity Index, Shannon-Wiener's Diversity, Equitability and The Informant Consensus Factor. The official review has been performed using the official monographs published by the WHO, ESCOP and the E Commission of the German Department of Health.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The ethnobotanical and medical catalogue of the Navarre Pyrenees Area comprises 92 species, of which 39 have been mentioned by at least three interviewees. The quantitative ethnobotany results show lower values than those found in other studies about the Pyrenees; and 57.6% of the Pyrenees medical ethnobotany described does not figure in documents published by the above mentioned institutions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results show a reduction in the ethnobotanical and medical knowledge in the area of study, when compared to other studies carried out in the Pyrenees. Nevertheless, the use of several species that may be regarded as possible sources for pharmacological studies is reported here such as the bark of <it>Sambucus nigra</it>, the roots of <it>Fragaria vesca</it>, or the leaves of <it>Scrophularia nodosa</it>. These species are not currently approved by the WHO, ESCOP and the E Commission of the German Department of Health, institutions that, apart from encouraging the greater use of plants for medicinal purposes, may help in the design of development plans for these rural areas by validating their traditional medicine.</p

In Vitro and Sensory Evaluation of Capsaicin-Loaded Nanoformulations

Capsaicin has known health beneficial and therapeutic properties. It is also able to enhance the permeability of drugs across epithelial tissues. Unfortunately, due to its pungency the oral administration of capsaicin is limited. To this end, we assessed the effect of nanoencapsulation of capsaicin, under the hypothesis that this would reduce its pungency. Core-shell nanocapsules with an oily core and stabilized with phospholipids were used. This system was used with or without chitosan coating. In this work, we investigated the in vitro release behavior of capsaicin-loaded formulations in different physiological media (including simulated saliva fluid). We also evaluated the influence of encapsulation of capsaicin on the cell viability of buccal cells (TR146). To study the changes in pungency after encapsulation we carried out a sensory analysis with a trained panel of 24 students. The in vitro release study showed that the systems discharged capsaicin slowly in a monotonic manner and that the chitosan coating had an effect on the release profile. The cytotoxic response of TR146 cells to capsaicin at a concentration of 500 μM, which was evident for the free compound, was reduced following its encapsulation. The sensory study revealed that a chitosan coating results in a lower threshold of perception of the formulation. The nanoencapsulation of capsaicin resulted in attenuation of the sensation of pungency significantly. However, the presence of a chitosan shell around the nanoformulations did not mask the pungency, when compared with uncoated systems

Characterization of the behavior of carotenoids from pitanga (Eugenia uniflora) and buriti (Mauritia flexuosa) during microemulsion production and in a dynamic gastrointestinal system

Uncommon tropical fruits are emerging as raw-material for new food products with health benefits. This work aimed at formulating and processing microemulsions from pitanga (Eugenia uniflora) and buriti (Mauritia flexuosa) fruits, since they are very rich in carotenoids (particularly lycopene and -carotene), in order to encapsulate and increase carotenoids bioaccessibility. Pitanga and buriti microemulsions were produced by applying a direct processing (high-speed homogenization at 15,000 rpm and ultrasound with 20 kHz probe at 40% amplitude) of the whole pulp together with surfactant (Tween 80 or Whey Protein Isolate at 2%) and corn oil (5%). All treatments (HSHUS for 04, 40, 44, 48 minmin) applied were able to increase the amount of carotenoid released. However, the processing also decreased the total amount of carotenoids in the whole pulp of studied fruits. The impact of processing during microemulsion production was not severe. The overall data suggest that the presence of surfactant and oil during processing may protect the carotenoids in fruits and microemulsions. Final recovery of total carotenoids, after passing the samples through a dynamic gastrointestinal system that simulates the human digestion, was higher for microemulsions than for whole pulps. High losses of total carotenoids in buriti and -carotene and lycopene in pitanga occurred during jejunum and ileum phases. The present work confirms that it is possible to increase -carotene and lycopene bioaccessibility from fruits by directly processing microemulsions (p<0.01).This work was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation—FAPESP through research funding [Grant #2015/15507-9] and Ph.D. scholarship for Paulo Berni [Grant #2014/15119-6] and a Research Internships Abroad (BEPE) support [Grant #2016/13355-0]. The author Ana C. Pinheiro is recipient of a fellowship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [Grant SFRH/BPD/101181/2014]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

INFOGEST static in vitro simulation of gastrointestinal food digestion

peer-reviewedSupplementary information is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41596-018-0119-1 or https://www.nature.com/articles/s41596-018-0119-1#Sec45.Developing a mechanistic understanding of the impact of food structure and composition on human health has increasingly involved simulating digestion in the upper gastrointestinal tract. These simulations have used a wide range of different conditions that often have very little physiological relevance, and this impedes the meaningful comparison of results. The standardized protocol presented here is based on an international consensus developed by the COST INFOGEST network. The method is designed to be used with standard laboratory equipment and requires limited experience to encourage a wide range of researchers to adopt it. It is a static digestion method that uses constant ratios of meal to digestive fluids and a constant pH for each step of digestion. This makes the method simple to use but not suitable for simulating digestion kinetics. Using this method, food samples are subjected to sequential oral, gastric and intestinal digestion while parameters such as electrolytes, enzymes, bile, dilution, pH and time of digestion are based on available physiological data. This amended and improved digestion method (INFOGEST 2.0) avoids challenges associated with the original method, such as the inclusion of the oral phase and the use of gastric lipase. The method can be used to assess the endpoints resulting from digestion of foods by analyzing the digestion products (e.g., peptides/amino acids, fatty acids, simple sugars) and evaluating the release of micronutrients from the food matrix. The whole protocol can be completed in ~7 d, including ~5 d required for the determination of enzyme activities.COST action FA1005 INFOGEST (http://www.cost-infogest.eu/ ) is acknowledged for providing funding for travel, meetings and conferences (2011-2015). The French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA, www.inra.fr) is acknowledged for their continuous support of the INFOGEST network by organising and co-funding the International Conference on Food Digestion and workgroup meeting

Protein-based structures for food applications: from macro to nanoscale

Novel food structures' development through handling of macroscopic and microscopic properties of bio-based materials (e.g., size, shape, and texture) is receiving a lot of attention since it allows controlling or changing structures' functionality. Proteins are among the most abundant and employed biomaterials in food technology. They are excellent candidates for creating novel food structures due to their nutritional value, biodegradability, biocompatibility, generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status and molecular characteristics. Additionally, the exploitation of proteins' gelation and aggregation properties can be used to encapsulate bioactive compounds inside their network and produce consistent delivery systems at macro-, micro-, and nanoscale. Consequently, bioactive compounds which are exposed to harsh storage and processing conditions and digestion environment may be protected and their bioavailability could be enhanced. In this review, a range of functional and structural properties of proteins which can be explored to develop macro-, micro-, and nanostructures with numerous promising food applications was discussed. Also, this review points out the relevance of scale on these structures' properties, allowing appropriate tailoring of protein-based systems such as hydrogels and micro- or nanocapsules to be used as bioactive compounds delivery systems. Finally, the behavior of these systems in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and the impact on bioactive compound bioavailability are thoroughly discussed.JM and AP acknowledge the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for their fellowships (SFRH/BPD/89992/2012 and SFRH/BPD/101181/2014). This work was supported by Portuguese FCT under the scope of the Project PTDC/AGR-TEC/5215/2014, of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684), and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020—Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio