Functional Foods and Human Health: An Overview

Functional food is a whole ingredient or a part of food that used as food for specific therapeutic purposes. It is divided into two wide categories: Conventional and modified functional foods. Conventional functional Foods are composed of natural or whole-food ingredients that provide functional substances while modified functional is food or food products in which add additional ingredients for specific health purposes. Plant-based food such as fruits, vegetables, herbs, cereals, nuts and beans contain vitamins, minerals, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and phenolic compounds that play a functional role in the human body against chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular and GIT-related disease. Some other foods or food products like juices, dairy products, fortified eggs and seafood are composed of functional components. Fish contain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) that are played a functional role in heart health and brain development

Crocin: Functional characteristics, extraction, food applications and efficacy against brain related disorders

Crocin is a bioactive compound that naturally occurs in some medicinal plants, especially saffron and gardenia fruit. Different conventional and novel methods are used for its extraction. Due to some control conditions, recent methods such as ultrasonic extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, enzyme-associated extraction, microwave extraction, and pulsed electric field extraction are widely used because these methods give more yield and efficiency. Crocin is incorporated into different food products to make functional foods. However, it can also aid in the stability of food products. Due to its ability to protect against brain diseases, the demand for crocin has been rising in the pharmaceutical industry. It also contain antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antidepressant qualities. This review aims to describe crocin and its role in developing functional food, extraction, and bioavailability in various brain-related diseases. The results of the literature strongly support the importance of crocin against various diseases and its use in making different functional foods

Nutritional characterization of value-added health mix using germinated barley

ABSTRACTThe present study was designed to explore the nutraceutical potential of orange peel, malted barley, and fenugreek-based value-added/functional health mix. Purposely, orange peel and fenugreek powder have been combined to germinated barley flour with different ratio  . The composite flour was subjected to a nutritional and antioxidant assay. The nutritional analysis revealed that orange peel and malted barley are good sources of protein, fiber, fat, potassium (K), and calcium (Ca). Afterward, the health mix-based functional drink was developed and subjected to physicochemical, functional, and sensory evaluation. The TPC (Total phenolic content), DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) activity, FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power) was found to be increased with the addition of peel flour at various concentrations. The drink (30% peel flour, 60% barley flour and 10% fenugreek flour) is among the other treatments. Sensory scores of formulated value-added drinks decreased with the progression of storage time