Healthy and Adverse Effects of Plant-Derived Functional Metabolites: The Need of Revealing their Content and Bioactivity in a Complex Food Matrix

Abstract

In recent years, both food quality and its effect on human health have become a fundamental issue all over the world. As a consequence of this new and increased awareness, American, European, and Asian policymakers have strongly encouraged the research programs on food quality and safety thematic. Attempts to improve human health and to satisfy people's desire for healthcare without intake of pharmaceuticals, has led the food industry to focus attention on functional or nutraceutical food. For a long time, compounds with nutraceutical activity have been produced chemically, but the new demands for a sustainable life have gradually led the food industry to move towards natural compounds, mainly those derived from plants. Many phytochemicals are known to promote good health, but, sometimes, undesirable effects are also reported. Furthermore, several products present on the market show few benefits and sometimes even the reverse – unhealthy effects; the evidence of efficacy is often unconvincing and epidemiological studies are necessary to prove the truth of their claims. Therefore, there is a need for reliable analytical control systems to measure the bioactivity, content, and quality of these additives in the complex food matrix. This review describes the most widespread nutraceutics and an analytical control of the same using recently developed biosensors which are promising candidates for routine control of functional foods.

Potential of plant polyphenols to combat oxidative stress and inflammatory processes in farm animals

“…Many of these secondary plant metabolites have been shown to exert a broad range of beneficial effects on health in humans and rodent models (e.g. Cornwell et al., ; Hooper et al., ; Lavecchia et al., ; Martin and Bolling, ). Among the great number of secondary plant metabolites, the group of polyphenols might be most promising due to its well‐established antioxidative and gene regulatory properties (Baur et al., ; Chuang and McIntosh, ; Aguirre et al., ).…”

Modulation of ruminal and intestinal fermentation by medicinal plants and zinc from different sources

“…Traditional medicines made from medicinal plants represent a source of multitarget therapeutics, and scientific interest in plant‐derived natural product‐based drug discovery is growing (Atanasov et al., ; Brusotti, Cesari, Dentamaro, Caccialanza, & Massolini, ; Lavecchia, Rea, Antonacci, & Giardi, ). Medicinal plants have long been used in ethnomedicine and folk veterinary medicine to treat various livestock diseases (Kumar & Bharati, ; Lans, Turner, Khan, Brauer, & Boepple, ).…”

Recent Biosensors for Food Analysis in Brazil and Italy

“…While the knowledge of phytochemical effects on human health and risks from chemical residues in food has led to a growing interest and attention towards the fast growth of functional and enriched food on the market, only little emphasis has been placed on the analytical aspects (Lavecchia et al 2013). In this regard, specific, new technologies have recently been developed to examine food components and different analytical procedures were developed to assess food quality and to determine food contaminants.…”