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- By-products of agri-food industry as tannin-rich sources: a review of tannins’ biological activities and their potential for valorizationPublication . Fraga-Corral, Maria; Otero, Paz; Echave Álvarez, Javier; García-Oliveira, Paula; Carpena Rodríguez, María; Jarboui, Amira; Núñez Estévez, Bernabé; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.During recent decades, consumers have been continuously moving towards the substitution of synthetic ingredients of the food industry by natural products, obtained from vegetal, animal or microbial sources. Additionally, a circular economy has been proposed as the most efficient production system since it allows for reducing and reutilizing different wastes. Current agriculture is responsible for producing high quantities of organic agricultural waste (e.g., discarded fruits and vegetables, peels, leaves, seeds or forestall residues), that usually ends up underutilized and accumulated, causing environmental problems. Interestingly, these agri-food by-products are potential sources of valuable bioactive molecules such as tannins. Tannins are phenolic compounds, secondary metabolites of plants widespread in terrestrial and aquatic natural environments. As they can be found in plenty of plants and herbs, they have been traditionally used for medicinal and other purposes, such as the leather industry. This fact is explained by the fact that they exert plenty of different biological activities and, thus, they entail a great potential to be used in the food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industry. Consequently, this review article is directed towards the description of the biological activities exerted by tannins as they could be further extracted from by-products of the agri-food industry to produce high-added-value products.
- Health promoting properties of bee royal jelly: Food of the queensPublication . Collazo, Nicolas; Carpena Rodríguez, María; Núñez Estévez, Bernabé; Otero, Paz; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.Royal jelly (RJ) demand is growing every year and so is the market for functional foods in general. RJ is formed by different substances, mainly carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids, but also vitamins, minerals, and phenolic or volatile compounds in lower proportion. Major royal jelly proteins (MRJP) are, together with 10†hydroxy†2†decenoic acid (10†HDA), key substances of RJ due to their different biological properties. In particular, 10†HDA is a unique substance in this product. RJ has been historically employed as health enhancer and is still very relevant in China due to the traditional medicine and the apitherapy. Nowadays, it is mainly consumed as a functional food or is found in supplements and other formulations for its health†beneficial properties. Within these properites, anti†lipidemic, antioxidant, antiproliferative, antimicrobial, neuroprotective, anti†inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antiaging, and estrogenic activities have been reported for RJ or its specific components. This manuscript is aimed at reviewing the current knowledge on RJ components, their assessment in terms of authenticity, their biological activities, and related health applications.
- Biological activities of selected plants of Rosaceae family employed in traditional remediesPublication . Barral Martínez, Marta; García-Oliveira, Paula; Núñez Estévez, Bernabé; Jarboui, Amira; Taofiq, Oludemi; Otero, Paz; Pinela, José; Calhelha, Ricardo C.; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Ferreira, Isabel C.F.R.; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.; Barros, LillianDuring human history, people have searched plant species to heal their diseases, elaborating different traditional remedies. Nowadays, numerous scientific studies have demonstrated the beneficial biological properties of several plants including species of Rosaceae familywhich appears in various ethnobotanical studies as one of the most used plants in traditional medicine Crataegus monogyna Jacq., Geum urbanum (L.) and Potentilla erecta (L.) Raeusch. are some plants of this family that have been employed in several traditional remedies, but their use is still limited nowadays [1]. The objective of this study was to different biological properties of these species, to potentiate their possible use in several biobased industrial applications. Antioxidant activity was evaluated by different in vitro assays: DPPH radical scavenging assay, TBARS, OXHLIA and reducing power. Anti-inflammatory activity was assessed by the inhibition of inflammation on RAW264.7 murine macrophages. Finally, antitumor activity was tested against four tumour cell lines: MCF-7, CaCo, AGS and NCI-H460. The results showed that all plant extracts had antioxidant effects in the selected assays, especially G. urbanum and P. erecta. Aditionally, P. erecta presented the best anti-inflammatory effect, with EC50 of 50 μg/mL extract. Finally, all the species presented cytotoxic effect against the cell lines, being P. erecta the most effective, with GI50 ranging from 13 to 61 μg/mL of extract. Considering these results, the three species showed promising potential as therapeutic alternatives based on the observed bioactive properties and can be utilised in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical formulations.
- Antimicrobial, cytotoxic and antioxidante activity of Amaranthaceae plants: a renewable source of nutrients and phenolic compounds.Publication . Núñez Estévez, Bernabé; Finimundy, Tiane C.; Carpena Rodríguez, María; Otero, Paz; Barral Martínez, Marta; Pires, Tânia C.S.; Mandim, Filipa; Pinela, José; García-Pérez, Pascual; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Ferreira, Isabel C.F.R.; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.; Barros, LillianSince the beginning of the 21st century, food products have been subjected to numerous tests to check their quality and presence of harmful agents. Nowadays, consumers awareness about food quality has increased dramatically, paying much attention to the identification of artificial additives, which are normally included as preservative ingredients, among others. This change is also represented in the food industry, where the use of natural food texturizers and preservatives has been replacing some commonly used artificial additives, thus motivating the search for new bioactive compounds from natural sources. Among such bioactive compounds, plant secondary metabolites, in special phenolic compounds, have been largely reported for their health-enhancing properties and preservative effect. In this study, a phytochemical and nutritional characterization of three species from the Amaranthaceae family (Alternanthera sessilis (L.) R., Dicliptera chinensis (L.) Juss. and Dysphania ambrosioides (L.) Mosyakin & Clemants) was performed. The antioxidant and antimicrobial activities and cytotoxicity to tumour and non-tumour cell lines were also evaluated using different methodologies. The results showed a high content of flavonoids in the ethanolic extract of the three species, ranging 11.4 – 15.1 mg/g extract, with apigenin, luteolin and isorhamnetin derivatives being the most abundant compounds. On the other hand, the results from nutritional analysis showed a high protein content in the species studied (13.9- 16.9 ± 0.1 g/100 g of dry weight, dw), together with the presence of organic acids, such as oxalic and succinic acids. Concerning the reported bioactivities of the plant extracts, the results for cytotoxic activity showed GI50 values ranging from 263 ± 12 μg/mL to 188 ± 14 μg/mL towards different tumor cell lines (colon carcinoma, Caco-2; breast adenocarcinoma, MCF-7; and non-small cell lung, NCI-H460) and no cytotoxic activity in the control cell line (Vero). Moreover, with respect to antimicrobial activity, the A. sessilis extract showed minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 5 mg/mL against Morganella morganii, as well as the D. abrosioides extract against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). For the antioxidant activity determined by the oxidative haemolysis assay (OxHLIA), the D. abrosioides extract showed an IC50 of 66 ± 10 μg/mL. Overall, these results suggest that ethanolic extracts from the characterized Amaranthaceae species, exhibiting a high bioactive potential, can be considered as promising natural ingredients or additives in the food industry.
- Essential oils and their application on active packaging systems: a reviewPublication . Carpena Rodríguez, María; Núñez Estévez, Bernabé; Soria-Lopez, Anton; Garcia-Oliveira, Paula; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.The food industry is continuously evolving through the application of innovative tools and ingredients towards more effective, safe, natural and ecofriendly solutions to satisfy the demands of the costumers. In this context, natural sources (i.e., leaves, seeds, peels or unused pulp) can entail a valuable source of compounds, such as essential oils (EOs), with recognized antioxidant and antimicrobial properties that can be used as natural additives in packaging applications. The current trend is the incorporation of EOs into diverse kinds of biodegradable materials, such as edible films, thus developing active packaging systems with improved preservation properties that can offer benefits to both the food and packaging industry by reducing food waste and improving the management of packaging waste. EOs may be added into the packaging material as free or encapsulated molecules, where, especially this last option, has been revealed as very promising. The addition of these lipophilic compounds provides to the end-product various bioactivities of interest, which can eventually extend the shelf-life of the product by preventing food spoilage. Pairing biodegradable packaging with EOs extracted from natural agro-industrial by-products can lead to a more sustainable food industry. Recent knowledge and advances on this issue will be reviewed in the present work.
- Fucoxanthin’s optimization from undaria pinnatifida using conventional heat extraction, bioactivity assays and in silico studiesPublication . Lourenço-Lopes, Catarina; Fraga-Corral, Maria; Soria-Lopez, Anton; Núñez Estévez, Bernabé; Barral Martínez, Marta; Silva, Aurora; Li, Ningyang; Liu, Chao; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.Brown macroalgae are a potential source of natural pigments. Among them, Undaria pinnatifida is recognized for its high concentration of fucoxanthin (Fx), which is a pigment with a wide range of bioactivities. In this study, three independent parameters were optimized for conventional heat extraction (CHE) to maximize the recovery of Fx from Undaria pinnatifida. Optimal conditions (temperature = 45 °C, solvent = 70%, and time = 61 min) extracted 5.1 mg Fx/g dw. Later, the bioactivities of the Fx-rich extracts (antioxidant, antimicrobial, and neuroprotective) were assessed using in vitro and in silico approaches. In vitro assays indicated that Fx has a strong antioxidant capacity and even stronger antimicrobial activity against gram-positive bacteria. This data was supported in silico where Fx established a high binding affinity to DR, a Staphylococcus aureus protein, through aa ALA-8, LEU-21, and other alkane interactions. Finally, the in vitro enzymatic inhibition of AChE using Fx, was further supported using docking models that displayed Fx as having a high affinity for aa TYR72 and THR 75; therefore, the Fx extraction behavior explored in this work may reduce the costs associated with energy and solvent consumption. Moreover, this paper demonstrates the efficiency of CHE when recovering high amounts of Fx from Undaria pinnatifida. Furthermore, these findings can be applied in different industries.
- Red Algae as a source of nutrients with antioxidant potentialPublication . Carpena Rodríguez, María; Caleja, Cristina; Pereira, Eliana; García-Oliveira, Paula; Pereira, Carla; Prieto Lage, Miguel A.; Núñez Estévez, Bernabé; Chamorro Rivo, Franklin Noel; Simal-Gandara, Jesus; Barros, Lillian; Ferreira, Isabel C.F.R.Seaweeds have been consumed since ancient times in different cultures, especially in Asian regions [1]. Currently, there are several scientific studies that, in addition to highlighting the nutritional content of seaweeds, also highlight their bioactive properties, normally associated with the presence of different compounds, namely phenolic compounds [2]. These factors may justify the growing demand and interest of consumers to include algae in their daily diet [3]. The present work aimed to determine the nutritional composition (ash, protein, fat, and carbohydrate content and energy value), the organic acids content and the antioxidant activity of three typical red algae from Galicia: Chondrus crispus, Mastocarpus stellatus, and Gigartina pistillata. The nutritional profile was evaluated using official analysis methods (AOAC), while organic acids were determined by UPFLC-PDA. The antioxidant activity was assessed using two in vitro assays: inhibition of lipid peroxidation through the formation of reactive substances of thiobarbituric acid (TBARS) and inhibition of oxidative hemolysis (OxHLIA). The results obtained showed a similar nutritional composition among the three algae analyzed, where it was found a low-fat content and a high content of proteins, carbohydrates, and energy. Malic acid was the major organic acid in all the studied algae, with M. stellatus revealing the highest total organic acids content. Finally, the in vitro assays showed the excellent antioxidant capacity of the three algae, in particular M. stellatus, which demonstrated the lowest EC50 value in the OxLHIA test (1.0 ± 0.1 μg/mL) and, therefore, the highest antioxidant activity. Thus, this study confirms the potential of red algae to be part of the human diet as a source of non-animal protein, due to its interesting nutritional content and due to their bioactive properties, acting as antioxidants. In addition, this study justifies the growing interest on using these algae in the development of new products in food and pharmaceutical industry.