Natural pigments from plants are of growing interest as substitutes for synthetic dyes in the food and pharmaceutical industry and they increase their added value if they possess positive effects on health. These pigments can be added as such if they are in the legal authorized lists of additives or can be added as phytochemical-enriched plant extract achieving the original product, which has received it, the new nomenclature of functional food. In this way, we comprise on this review a wide point of view of a group of natural pigments known as betalains. From a chemical point of view, betalains are ammonium conjugates of betalamic acid with cyclo-DOPA (betacyanins, violet) and aminoacids or amines (betaxanthins, orange or yellow), which are compounds present in our diet. Besides and taking into account that one type of betalain, betanin is approved as food colorant (E-162) by the European Union and that enlarges the specific weight of these compounds in the diet, we have evolved an overview from the biosynthesis, technology and promoting production, industrial uses as pigments up to physiological and nutritional biovailability or biological and health-promoting properties of betalains for accessible information to industrials, researchers and consumers.

This analytical method could constitute a useful tool for the determination of oxidative stress biomarkers in clinical studies in which IsoPs may evidence early pathological conditions, as suggested by the determination of the baseline IsoPs content in human urine, since it improves upon the detection capacity of previously described methods. The quantity of IsoPs excreted in urine was higher than that found in previous reports due to the total hydrolysis of the conjugated forms.

No abstract

This review was designed as a handbook of metabolomic markers of high significance for a wide range of human diseases. This is the first report to collate results from recent studies in a format that allows ready identification of key metabolites by cross-comparisons of results from one disease to another. All the data presented in this work were obtained by previous research carried out exclusively during clinical trials in humans. Also, discussion of the pathophysiological pathways linked to the markers described is provided. The clinical assays focused on non-targeted or targeted metabolomics and metabolite profiling (focused assays which only refer to a limited array of known biomarkers, applying discriminatory and bioinformatic tools to them) as well as predictive modelling based on clinical trials. The data also highlight pathways and biological compounds that are disrupted at early stages of the diseases, in order to help elucidate target compounds and the pathophysiology of the considered diseases for early prognosis and diagnosis using noninvasive samples (saliva, sputum, serum, plasma, blood, urine, tissue, faecal water or faeces). In the tables, the candidate metabolites for biomarkers of diagnosis, or the biomarkers themselves, are detailed, indicating the type of sample in which they were detected and their up- or down-regulation (if calculated). The metabolites derived from each study have been filtered carefully, according to the analytical platform, and biostatistical discriminant analyses developed. Among the pool of data provided, those reaching a level of significance of p=0.05-0.0001, according to the Bonferroni correction, Steel-Dwass t- or Wilcoxon matched pair tests, are shown.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality rates are lower in Asian countries where dietary patterns are very different from Western diet. A number of studies have linked these lower rates to the inclusion of soy products as a staple food in those countries. Soy is the richest dietary source of isoflavones, a type of phytoestrogen associated with many potentially beneficial effects. Isoflavone-containing soy protein consumption has been linked to reduced levels of LDL cholesterol in hypercholesterolemic patients. This effect is increased with the concomitant administration of isoflavones, and seems to be also complemented by the isoflavone capacity to restore the endothelial function in patients with weak and moderated endothelial dysfunction. The effects are variable depending on individuals� � � metabolism and in particular to their ability to convert daidzein to equol that seems to be restricted to approximately 1/3 of the population. Equol production has been indeed linked to a decreased arterial stiffness and antiatherosclerotic effects via NO production. Because the relevance of isoflavones consumption on the modulation of cardiovascular risk still remains unclear, this paper aims to review the existing knowledge on the biological activity of the isoflavones on the human cardiovascular system from an epidemiological, clinical and -omics point of view.