Current Nutrition & Food Science - Volume 19, Issue 6, 2023

There is persistently high demand for fresh fruits and vegetables all over the world. One of the crucial factors that reduce the shelf life of fruits and vegetables is temperature- dependent oxidation during transportation and long storage. Fruits and vegetable coating using ecofriendly coatings hold a great advantage over the other synthetic coating materials. The fruits and vegetables with coating can prevent rapid oxidation even at warm temperatures. They enhance the quality and shelf life and maintain nutritional properties. Though edible coatings prove to be beneficial, the major drawback associated with them is the vulnerability towards moisture- dependent rapid degradation of these fruits and vegetables. Use of appropriate plasticizers would be helpful in enhancing the moisture and oxidation resistance. The current review article will highlight the use of various plasticizers used with polysaccharide-based coatings.

Enzymatic hydrolysis (EH) of proteins relies essentially upon enhancing the functional and nutritional properties of proteins, such as antioxidant activity, solubility, oil holding capacity, water holding capacity, emulsification, foaming properties, and sensory properties. There is a big challenge for protein separation and purification due to the high production cost, the large number of amino acids, and the complex biological system of proteins. These biological structures are always presented in a multi-component mixture in native environments, which are usually similar to other molecular weights of other components, such as protein-lipid complexes. These difficulties present the importance of a combination of the hydrolysis process of protein with adequate technology for separation and purification to achieve better bioactive peptide recovery. There are many studies conducted dealing with the characteristics of the hydrolysis process of proteins, and other implications, such as the separation of protein and bioactive peptides. Therefore, this study aims to review the important and recent research papers that investigated the effect of various conditions of the enzymatic hydrolysis process (EHP) (type of enzyme, enzyme to substrate ratio, temperature, pH, and time) on the antioxidant capacity of protein hydrolysates and degree of hydrolysis, as well as to assess the recent studies about protein purification and potential separation techniques.

In addition to the classical functions of the musculoskeletal system and calcium homeostasis, the function of vitamin D as an immune modulator is well established. The vitamin D receptors and enzymes that metabolize vitamin D are ubiquitously expressed in most cells in the body, including T and B lymphocytes, antigen-presenting cells, monocytes, macrophages and natural killer cells that trigger immune and antimicrobial responses. Many in vitro and in vivo studies revealed that vitamin D promotes tolerogenic immunological action and immune modulation. Vitamin D adequacy positively influences the expression and release of antimicrobial peptides, such as cathelicidin, defensin, and anti-inflammatory cytokines, and reduces the expression of proinflammatory cytokines. Evidence suggestss that vitamin D's protective immunogenic actions reduce the risk, complications, and death from COVID-19. On the contrary, vitamin D deficiency worsened the clinical outcomes of viral respiratory diseases and the COVID-19-related cytokine storm, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and death. The study revealed the need for more preclinical studies and focused on well-designed clinical trials with adequate sizes to understand the role of vitamin D on the pathophysiology of immune disorders and mechanisms of subduing microbial infections, including COVID-19.

Global suffering from COVID-19 has necessitated augmenting the immunity systems of humans through consumption of macro-micro-nutrients and antioxidant-enriched fortified foods. In this article, fortifications of popular bakery products, viz. biscuits, cookies, have been reviewed, encompassing the novel fortifying ingredients and innovative methods employed with an emphasis on the overall enrichment in the final product quality. A few notable features concerning novel fortified biscuit and fortified cookie have been decisively summarized. Wheat flour blended with 40% sesame-cake flour resulted in a fortified biscuit possessing higher protein (16.6%), crude fat (16.95%), and dietary fiber (8.2%) with acceptable sensory characteristics. About 9% toting up of chicken-eggshell dried-powder could result in high Ca content in biscuits with customary changes in texture and sensory properties. A remarkable 5% addition of bee pollen to wheat flour appreciably improved the nutrient compositions (carbohydrate 65.18%, protein 7.32%, and total dietary-fiber 1.47%) along with high polyphenol and antioxidant potentials. Notably, mixing fish fillet protein concentrate with wheat flour could yield enhanced nutritional content (protein 14.63-19.52%, fat 16.2-16.5%), as well as augmented amino acids. Remarkably, wheat flour fortified with fermented jack bean flour resulted in an overall fortified biscuit with substantial carbohydrate, crude protein, fat, fiber, ash, and appreciable macro-micro mineral contents and sensory characteristics. Innovative fortified cookies were made by blending wheat flour or Brewer’s spent grain flour with one or more ingredients, e.g. full fat soya, mushroom, cardamom powder, moringa leaves, coconut, sweet potato flour rendering amplified values of nutrients, superior physical properties, increased mineral and flavonoid contents and organoleptic qualities.

Background & Aims: Folic acid is a widely used supplement with numerous purported health benefits. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of folic acid on body weight (BW) and body mass index (BMI). Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluated the effects of folic acid supplementation BW or BMI in 514 participants. A systematic search, current as of March 2021, was performed in PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase using relevant keywords to identify eligible studies. A fixed-effects model was used to estimate the weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: 11 RCTs were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled analysis revealed that folic acid supplementation did not affect BW (WMD: 0.16 kg; 95% CI: -0.77 to 1.10; p = 0.727, I²= 0.0%, p = 1.00) and BMI (WMD: 0.05 kg/m²; 95% CI: -0.08 to 0.19; p = 0.447, I²= 0.0%, p = 0.666). Conclusion: Folic acid supplementation did not significantly impact body weight or BMI. Future large-scale RCTs, on various dosages and durations of intervention are needed to elucidate the effects more clearly.

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder. The therapeutic approaches for treating diabetes are to decrease the absorption of glucose through the inhibition of carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes like α-amylase and α-glucosidase or to use medications for lowering the blood glucose level. Objective: The current study aimed to investigate the inhibitory potentials of the key digestive enzymes, α-amylase and α-glucosidase, by betel leaf extracts and blood glucose lowering activities using diabetic mice. Methods: In vitro inhibitory potentials of the key enzymes linked to type 2 diabetes mellitus (viz. α-amylase and α-glucosidase) by the betel leaf (Piper betle) extracts, including the study on the mode of enzyme inhibition, were evaluated spectrophotometrically and in vivo blood glucose lowering activities were assessed using alloxan-induced diabetic mice. Results: Betel leaf extracts showed potential α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition activities and blood glucose lowering activities. Among the extracts, young deshi betel leaf extract demonstrated the highest α-amylase inhibition activity, while young khasia betel leaf extract exhibited the lowest α-amylase inhibition activity. Young khasia betel leaf extract showed the maximum α- glucosidase inhibition activity. However, the lowest α-glucosidase inhibition activity was found with deshi betel leaf extracts. Betel leaf extract inhibited α-amylase and α-glucosidase activities through competitive inhibition. In vivo study revealed that among the extracts, young deshi and khasia leaf extract reduced blood glucose levels in all doses. Young deshi leaf extract exhibited significant (p&;lt;0.05) antidiabetic activity to reduce blood glucose level #130; 6.9 mmol/L at a lower concentration. Conclusion: This study would open a new window for the researcher to find new antidiabetic bioactive compounds that would be cost-effective and without any adverse effects.

Background: A large number of individuals around the world consider themselves to be vegetarians for many individual reasons, and the vegetarian diet appears very heterogeneous. The prevalence of vegetarianism varies widely around the world. Objective: This paper examined the variables associated with the non-consumption of meat and valued trends in the plant-based diet among Italian adults in relation to the level of self-perceived health in this category of people in 4 years (2013-2016). Methods: Data were drawn from the survey “Aspects of daily life” conducted by the ISTAT (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica). We considered the data of the 2013-2016 editions to evaluate the trend and attitude of the Italian population towards the non-consumption of meat during 4 years and assessed trends in the plant-based diet among Italian adults in relation to the level of selfperceived health. Results: The results showed an increasing trend from 2013 to 2016. In statistical analysis, vegetarian status was associated to under the age of 45, having a high level of education, being mainly separated or divorced, being resident in the North-West regions, and with a poor selfperceived state of health. Furthermore, vegetarians had shown healthier lifestyles and lower risk factors for non-communicable diseases than non-vegetarians. Conclusion: The results suggest that despite perceiving a worse health status, the long-term health of vegetarians is good and may be better than that of comparable non-vegetarians for some conditions and diseases, such as Obesity and IHD. As for all types of diet, well-designed health educational interventions conveying information on correct eating behavior may significantly contribute to increasing the degree of perceived health.