Underutilized fruit lasoda (Cordia myxa L.): Review on bioactive compounds, antioxidant potentiality and applications in health bioactivities and food.

Underutilized fruits are thought to be nutrient and antioxidant gold mines. Despite their high nutritive value, therapeutic properties, and ability to grow in adverse soil and climatic conditions, they have received little attention. However, these underutilized fruits are an important component of traditional foods, particularly in arid and semiarid regions of Rajasthan. Lasoda (Cordia myxa) contains numerous phytochemicals that contribute to its antioxidant potential, including tannins, flavonoids, phenolic acids, xanthones, terpenes, and saponins. The primary goal of this review is to emphasize the importance of extracting bioactive compounds from lasoda and evaluating their antioxidant potential. Furthermore, this review emphasizes the major areas for the application of lasoda and its extract as prospective positive health agents that can be used in the preparation of functional foods. The use of lasoda may also improve the value of bakery products and meat quality and prevent postharvest losses. This review is a pilot article that can aid in the nutritional profiling of Cordia fruits and seeds, and it provides information on the effective and efficient use of this underutilized fruit in the food and nutraceutical industries.

Fenugreek derived diosgenin as an emerging source for diabetic therapy.

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease that endangers the entire body's tissues and organs. Diabetes impairs glucose and insulin regulation in the human body by causing pancreatic cell damage. Diabetes modifies pathways such as serine/threonine protein kinase (Akt) and Protein kinase C (PKC)/- glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) glucose absorption, and inhibits α-amylase and α-glucosidase, Sodium/glucose cotransporter 1 (SGLT-1), and Na+-K+-ATPase activity. Diabetes may also be caused by a decrease in the expression of sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 (SREBP-1) and its target genes, fatty acid synthase (FAS), stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD-1), and acetyl-CoA carboxylase α (ACC), as well as a decrease in the levels of C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP), Caspase12, and Caspase3 proteins. Diabetes has long been linked to diseases of the cardiovascular, nervous, skeletal, reproductive, hepatic, ocular, and renal systems. Diosgenin, a steroidal compound derived from fenugreek, aids in the prevention of diabetes by altering cellular pathways in favor of healthy bodily functions. Diosgenin is a new nutraceutical on the market that claims to cure diabetes in particular. This article focuses on diosgenin extraction and purification, fenugreek bioactive compounds, pharmacological properties of diosgenin, mode of action of diosgenin to cure diabetes, and dosages.

Microalgal bioactive metabolites as promising implements in nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals: inspiring therapy for health benefits.

The rapid increase in global population and shrinkage of agricultural land necessitates the use of cost-effective renewable sources as alternative to excessive resource-demanding agricultural crops. Microalgae seem to be a potential substitute as it rapidly produces large biomass that can serve as a good source of various functional ingredients that are not produced/synthesized inside the human body and high-value nonessential bioactive compounds. Microalgae-derived bioactive metabolites possess various bioactivities including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-carcinogenic, anti-hypertensive, anti-lipidemic, and anti-diabetic activities, thereof rapidly elevating their demand as interesting option in pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and functional foods industries for developing new products. However, their utilization in these sectors has been limited. This demands more research to explore the functionality of microalgae derived functional ingredients. Therefore, in this review, we intended to furnish up-to-date knowledge on prospects of bioactive metabolites from microalgae, their bioactivities related to health, the process of microalgae cultivation and harvesting, extraction and purification of bioactive metabolites, role as dietary supplements or functional food, their commercial applications in nutritional and pharmaceutical industries and the challenges in this area of research.

Onion anthocyanins: Extraction, stability, bioavailability, dietary effect, and health implications.

Anthocyanins are high-value compounds, and their use as functional foods and their natural colorant have potential health benefits. Anthocyanins seem to possess antioxidant properties, which help prevent neuronal diseases and thereby exhibit anti-inflammatory, chemotherapeutic, cardioprotective, hepatoprotective, and neuroprotective activities. They also show different therapeutic effects against various chronic diseases. Anthocyanins are present in high concentrations in onion. In recent years, although both conventional and improved methods have been used for extraction of anthocyanins, nowadays, improved methods are of great importance because of their higher yield and stability of anthocyanins. In this review, we compile anthocyanins and their derivatives found in onion and the factors affecting their stability. We also analyze different extraction techniques of anthocyanins. From this point of view, it is very important to be precisely aware of the impact that each parameter has on the stability and subsequently potentiate its bioavailability or beneficial health effects. We present up-to-date information on bioavailability, dietary effects, and health implications of anthocyanins such as antioxidant, antidiabetic, anticancerous, antiobesity, cardioprotective, and hepatoprotective activities.

Repurposing chia seed oil: A versatile novel functional food.

Chia seed oil (CSO) has been recently gaining tremendous interest as a functional food. The oil is rich in with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), especially, alpha linolenic acid (ALA), linoleic acid (LA), tocopherols, phenolic acids, vitamins, and antioxidants. Extracting CSO through green technologies has been highly efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable, which has also shown to improve its nutritional potential and proved to be eco-friendly than any other traditional or conventional processes. Due to the presence of valuable bioactive metabolites, CSO is proving to be a revolutionary source for food, baking, dairy, pharmaceutical, livestock feed, and cosmetic industries. CSO has been reported to possess antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antiobesity, antioxidant, antihyperlipidemic, insect-repellent, and skin-healing properties. However, studies on toxicological safety and commercial potency of CSO are limited and therefore the need of the hour is to focus on large-scale molecular mechanistic and clinical studies, which may throw light on the possible translational opportunities of CSO to be utilized to its complete potential. In this review, we have deliberated on the untapped therapeutical possibilities and novel findings about this functional food, its biochemical composition, extraction methods, nutritional profiling, oil stability, and nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications for its health benefits and ability to counter various diseases.

Advanced osmotic dehydration techniques combined with emerging drying methods for sustainable food production: Impact on bioactive components, texture, color, and sensory properties of food.

The food industries are looking for potential preservation methods for fruits and vegetables. The combination of osmosis and drying has proved the efficient method to improve the food quality. Osmotic dehydration is a mass transfer process in which water molecules from the food move to an osmo-active solution and the solutes from the solution migrate into the food. Advanced osmotic dehydration techniques such as electric field pulse treatment, ultrasonic and microwave-assisted dehydration, pulsed vacuum, and osmodehydrofreezing can improve the nutritional quality (bioactive) and sensory properties (color, texture, aroma, flavor) of fresh and cut-fruits without changing their reliability. Emerging osmotic dehydration technologies can preserve the structure of fruit tissue by forming microscopic channels and increasing effective water diffusivity. However, it is important to analyze the effect of advanced osmotic dehydration techniques on the quality of food products to understand the industrial scalability of these techniques. The present paper discusses the impact of recent osmotic dehydration techniques on bioactive, antioxidant capacity, color, and sensory profile of food.

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Bioactives and Its Role in Alleviating Oral Pathologies.

Garlic (Allium sativa L.) is a bulbous flowering plant belongs to the family of Amaryllidaceae and is a predominant horticultural crop originating from central Asia. Garlic and its products are chiefly used for culinary and therapeutic purposes in many countries. Bulbs of raw garlic have been investigated for their role in oral health, which are ascribed to a myriad of biologically active compounds such as alliin, allicin, methiin, S-allylcysteine (SAC), diallyl sulfide (DAS), S-ally-mercapto cysteine (SAMC), diallyl disulphide (DADS), diallyl trisulfide (DATS) and methyl allyl disulphide. A systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA statement. Scopus, PubMed, Clinicaltrials.gov, and Science direct databases were searched between 12 April 2021 to 4 September 2021. A total of 148 studies were included and the qualitative synthesis phytochemical profile of GE, biological activities, therapeutic applications of garlic extract (GE) in oral health care system, and its mechanism of action in curing various oral pathologies have been discussed. Furthermore, the safety of incorporation of GE as food supplements is also critically discussed. To conclude, GE could conceivably make a treatment recourse for patients suffering from diverse oral diseases.

Crosstalk during the Carbon-Nitrogen Cycle That Interlinks the Biosynthesis, Mobilization and Accumulation of Seed Storage Reserves.

Carbohydrates are the major storage reserves in seeds, and they are produced and accumulated in specific tissues during the growth and development of a plant. The storage products are hydrolyzed into a mobile form, and they are then translocated to the developing tissue following seed germination, thereby ensuring new plant formation and seedling vigor. The utilization of seed reserves is an important characteristic of seed quality. This review focuses on the seed storage reserve composition, source-sink relations and partitioning of the major transported carbohydrate form, i.e., sucrose, into different reserves through sucrolytic processes, biosynthetic pathways, interchanging levels during mobilization and crosstalk based on vital biochemical pathways that interlink the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Seed storage reserves are important due to their nutritional value; therefore, novel approaches to augmenting the targeted storage reserve are also discussed.

Recent trends in extraction of plant bioactives using green technologies: A review.

Phenolic compounds from plant sources have significant health-promoting properties and are known to be an integral part of folk and herbal medicines. Consumption of phenolics is known to alleviate the risk of various lifestyle diseases including cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes, and Alzheimer's. In this context, numerous plant crops have been explored and characterized based on phenolic compounds for their use as supplements, nutraceutical, and pharmaceuticals. The present review highlights some important source of bioactive phenolic compounds and novel technologies for their efficient extraction. These techniques include the use of microwave, ultrasound, and supercritical methods. Besides, the review will also highlight the use of response surface methodology (RSM) as a statistical tool for optimizing the recoveries of the phenolic bioactives from plant-based matrices.