Current Functional Foods - Volume 2, Issue 2, 2024

This review briefly discusses about herbal medication, i.e., Murraya koenigii, also known as curry leaves, that have been useful in traditional medicine for centuries and natural products with different pharmacological activities. It might lead to a better knowledge of natural products' potential therapeutic effects and the creation of promising pharmaceuticals with minimal toxicity and great effectiveness for treating different ailments. The Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM), Technological Periodical Database (VIP), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Google Scholar, Elsevier, ScienceDirect, Sci Finder, and PubMed were used to compile the content of this review. From 1975 through 2020, data were collected. More than 23 components of M. koenigii have been discovered so far, with sterols, carbohydrates, flavonoids, and alkaloids causing the most concern. Due to its multicomponent nature, M. koenigii has a wide range of beneficial biological activities, including analgesic, anticancer, antioxidative, antimicrobial, antihypertensive, antidiabetic activities, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties. This review discusses the vast details of M. koenigii (Curry leaves) and its possible medicinal use for different therapeutic purposes. The plant incorporates other essential substances, as discussed, are beneficial to remedy and deal with several ailment cures that exhibit different pharmacological actions. The accumulated ethnopharmacological details of that plant may be further helpful for the upcoming research about the said properties and use of M. koenigii.

Worldwide, cereals are staple foods and are needed for proper growth and development of humans. In the food industry, coloured cereals have gained popularity as potential nutraceuticals. These are high in phytochemicals, which are crucial in protecting the body from allergies, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Due to their strong antioxidant effects, phenolic compounds have sparked a lot of interest in many scientific fields. Anthocyanins have the potential of functional food ingredient. Anthocyanins are the ubiquitous family of natural pigments which are found in large quantities in various cereals such as corn, wheat, barley, rice, sorghum and its varieties and various colored cereals like black, red, and pink cereals. Cereals contain phenolic compounds which are found in either bound or Free State, which is called the total phenolic compound content. The present review provides health benefits properties of various photochemical of cereals, including phenolics, flavonoids, anthocyanin, proanthocyanidins, tocopherols and phytates.

Allium Sativum, commonly known as garlic, has been employed for ages for both cuisines and restorative purposes. Many sulfur-containing phytochemical constituents are abundant in garlic and they are responsible for its many pharmacological properties. The most extensively studied compound in garlic is allicin, however, other forms of garlic such as aged garlic, raw garlic, and oil maceration of garlic, have their own unique chemical properties. Garlic has been shown to lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol levels, improve insulin sensitivity, inhibit cell proliferation, enhance peristalsis motion, modulate acetylcholine, and inhibit lipid oxidation. Apart from all its traditional therapeutic activity, it has much more potential for further study such as cancer treatment with lesser side-effects, improving mitochondrial dysfunction in Huntington’s disease, enhancement psoriasis treatment, affinity to treat glomerular disease, and vast scope in polycystic ovary syndrome and in uterine contraction. This review talks about pharmacology activities, future aspects, phytochemicals, and the privileged aspects of Allium Sativum.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive cognitive decline, memory loss, and impaired daily functioning. The etiology of AD is complex and multifactorial, involving various pathological mechanisms such as the accumulation of amyloid-beta plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress. As the global prevalence of AD continues to rise, there is a growing interest in identifying potential therapeutic interventions to prevent or slow down the progression of the disease. Resveratrol, a natural polyphenolic compound found in various plant sources such as grapes, berries, and peanuts, has gained considerable attention due to its potential neuroprotective effects. Numerous preclinical studies utilizing in vitro and animal models have investigated the impact of resveratrol on AD pathology and associated cognitive impairments. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the current research on the role of resveratrol in AD. In conclusion, resveratrol holds promise as a potential therapeutic agent for AD due to its ability to target multiple pathological processes involved in the disease. Further research, including well-designed clinical trials with larger sample sizes, is needed to fully elucidate the efficacy, optimal dosage, and long-term effects of resveratrol in AD patients. Nevertheless, resveratrol remains an intriguing compound with neuroprotective properties and may contribute to the development of novel therapeutic approaches for AD in the future.

Cooking oils and fats play a significant role in our daily diet and culinary practices by enhancing flavours, textures, and nutritional value. However, overheating these fats can compromise the quality and safety of cooked foods. When oils and fats exceed their smoke points, they undergo chemical breakdown, producing volatile compounds, off-flavours, and undesirable odors, including harmful substances like small chain fatty acids, trans fats, acrylamides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. It is crucial to avoid overheating oils to mitigate the formation of these toxic substances and instead opt for those with higher smoke points for high-temperature cooking methods. The smoke point, indicating the temperature at which visible smoke is emitted, serves as a critical indicator of thermal stability and suitability for various cooking oils and fats. Therefore, understanding and considering the smoke points of different oils and fats are essential for maintaining food quality and safety in culinary practices. This review consolidates existing knowledge on the smoke points of various oils and fats and methods for determining smoke points, providing a list of fifty-one oils and fats with their respective smoke points and highlighting their applications in cooking. By considering the smoke point, chefs, cooks, and food manufacturers can select oils that optimize cooking, frying, taste, texture, flavour enhancement, salad dressings, marinades, baking, and overall safety in their culinary practices. Mindfulness of the smoke point helps prevent the degradation of nutritional value and the generation of harmful compounds during the cooking process.

The harmful impact of substances on renal function is known as nephrotoxicity and the substance that shows a harmful impact is called nephrotoxins. Nephrotoxins can be classified into various categories like drugs as nephrotoxins, plant-origin nephrotoxins, environmental toxins, dietary supplements as nephrotoxins, mycotoxins, pesticides and some infection-causing agents to act as nephrotoxins. Drugs like cisplatin and aminoglycosides, plants like lemongrass and licorice, pesticides like alachlor and atrazine, environmental toxins like heavy metals, halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbons and aromatic halides, mycotoxins like citrinin are the examples of nephrotoxins. The various mechanisms by which they can cause nephrotoxicity are inflammation, tubular cell necrosis (drug-induced), hemolysis, vasoconstriction (plant-induced), oxidative stress, enhanced permeability, encephalopathy (environmental toxins), cysts formation, nephrolithiasis (by dietary supplements), tubular epithelial degeneration, vascular congestion (pesticides induced) endothelial cell damage, hypertrophy of tubular cell, increased vascular permeability (infection agents induced), etc. The abstract provides an overview of the basic groups of nephrotoxins as well as specific examples and their individual modes of action. It also emphasises the great diversity of substances and mechanisms that can contribute to nephrotoxicity.

Apiaceae is one of the biggest and most important plant families, comprising about 3700 species and 434 genera. Most of them are aromatic, flowering plants. The plants in this family are beneficial for everyday use and treating diseases. They are a rich source of nutraceuticals and secondary metabolites attributed to different pharmacological activities. Some plants under this family possess antidiabetic activity through different mechanisms, such as inhibiting carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes, stimulating insulin secretion, and regulating glucose transporters. Diabetes mellitus has become a chronic metabolic disorder whose management is of utmost importance in recent days. The present review aims to establish the use of Apiaceae family plants in treating diabetes mellitus. The availability of plants, their bio-constituents, mode of action, and experimental studies have also been briefly described here.