Contribution of nanoscience research in antioxidants delivery used in nutricosmetic sector

Nanoscience applications in the food and cosmetic industry offer many potential benefits for consumers and society. Nanotechnologies permit the manipulation of matter at the nanoscale level, resulting in new properties and characteristics useful in food and cosmetic production, processing, packaging, and storage. Nanotechnology protects sensitive bioactive compounds, improves their bioavailability and water solubility, guarantees their release at a site of action, avoids contact with other constituents, and masks unpleasant taste. Biopolymeric nanoparticles, nanofibers, nanoemulsions, nanocapsules, and colloids are delivery systems used to produce food supplements and cosmetics. There are no barriers to nanoscience applications in food supplements and cosmetic industries, although the toxicity of nano-sized delivery systems is not clear. The physicochemical and toxicological characterization of nanoscale delivery systems used by the nutricosmeceutic industry is reviewed in this wor

The potential application of natural antimicrobial peptides in the food industry

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are produced by plants, animals, arthropods, and microorganisms as innate immune defense molecules that can act against Gram-positive, Gram-negative, viruses and fungi. AMPs capable of resisting proteases, pH, and temperature changes are being studied to meet the needs of the food industry that use temperature variations to improve the foods’ preservation and proteases to reduce the food’s allergy and vary the foods’ taste. The food industry can employ AMPs as biopreservants since they can control microbial growth and lipid oxidation. The AMPs can be added to low-reactive foods (e.g., fiber-rich food such as pseudocereals, whole-grain bread, nuts, cereals, legumes, fruits, and vegetables) and not be inserted into high-reactivity food (e.g., liquid-based food formulations). The free amino acids, carbonyl, and sulfur functional groups in the AMPs structure influence their bioactivity. The additives ascorbate and nitrite added with AMPs alter their technological properties and functionality. Similarly, sulfites used as antioxidants and antiseptics can react with the AMPs’ disulfide bonds to form S-sulfonates. Thus, nano-delivery systems (nanoparticles, nanocapsules, nanofibers, and nanoliposomes) are being investigated to protect and deliver AMPs to the action’s site. Moreover, active packaging systems have been developed to influence the release of AMPs and reduce the interactions with food components

The Potential of Algae in the Nutricosmetic Sector

Seaweeds or algae are marine autotrophic organisms. They produce nutrients (e.g., proteins, carbohydrates, etc.) essential for the survival of living organisms as they participate in biochemical processes and non-nutritive molecules (such as dietary fibers and secondary metabolites), which can improve their physiological functions. Seaweed polysaccharides, fatty acids, peptides, terpenoids, pigments, and polyphenols have biological properties that can be used to develop food supplements and nutricosmetic products as they can act as antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory compounds. This review examines the (primary and secondary) metabolites produced by algae, the most recent evidence of their effect on human health conditions, with particular attention to what concerns the skin and hair’s well-being. It also evaluates the industrial potential of recovering these metabolites from biomass produced by algae used to clean wastewater. The results demonstrate that algae can be considered a natural source of bioactive molecules for well-being formulations. The primary and secondary metabolites’ upcycling can be an exciting opportunity to safeguard the planet (promoting a circular economy) and, at the same time, obtain low-cost bioactive molecules for the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries from low-cost, raw, and renewable materials. Today’s lack of methodologies for recovering bioactive molecules in large-scale processes limits practical realization

International Congress and Expo on Food Science and Technology (ICEFST2024)

Over the past decades, epidemiological surveys have given robust evidence about the association between regular antioxidant-rich intakes and the reduced incidence of inflammation, cancer, cardiovascular disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, obesity, and diabetes. Therefore, consumer demand for functional foods, supplements, and nutraceuticals that provide antioxidants has increased in the last decade. Plants are rich in trace components with antioxidant properties. Agro-food industries produce massive amounts of non-edible waste rich in secondary metabolites with antioxidant potentiality. These raw materials could be low-cost supplies for up-cycling active antioxidant phytochemicals. Of particular interest could be the recovery of phenolic compounds, abundant in plant residues, with functional potential that can be used in nutraceutical, biomedical, and cosmetic formulations. The valorization of plant by-products can be strategic for the agro-food industry and sustainability policies since preventing the ecosystems' eutrophication preserves ecological standards. Many strategies have been proposed for the recovery of these compounds at a laboratory scale. The problem to be addressed is how to recover these compounds on a large scale without decreasing their functional characteristics. This work discusses advanced technologies proposed for extracting polyphenols from agri-food by-products recently, considering not only the ability to extract the phenolic compounds exhaustively and preserve their antioxidant properties but also the ability to be applied in advantageous conditions of time and energy

Bioactive peptides of marine origin

The potential of peptides produced from natural sources has caught the researcher's attention over the past year. Marine peptides have physiological, "hormone-like", associated with nutritional values and other beneficial properties for human health, such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Dietary intake of marine-origin peptides could decrease the risk of oxidative stress-related diseases such as cardiovascular, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease. Marin-origin peptides' advantages are low cost, environmental protection, sustainability, emulsifying, functional, solubility, foaming properties, and fewer side effects than synthetic drugs. Therefore, they have potential industrial applications. The main stages of algae bioactive peptides isolation are algae homogenization, extraction, purification by liquid chromatography, and characterization by spectroscopic methods. This presentation discusses the functional properties of peptides isolated from algae, their application in food, nutricosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries, and the isolation and characterization strategies to obtain the