Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & Agriculture - Volume 1, Issue 3, 2009

In recent years, the scientific community, food industry, consumers and media have revealed a growing interest regarding the potential benefits of tea consumption for human health. Several studies indicate that phenolic compounds, especially flavan-3-ols (catechins), are the main components responsible for the medicinal effects of this beverage due to their recognized antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are ascribed to reduce cells and biomolecules oxidative damage caused by reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS). In fact, ROS and RNS have been implicated in the oxidative deterioration of food products, as well as in the pathogenesis of several chronic and/or ageing diseases such as atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, chronic inflammation, neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, and certain types of cancer. (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, the main component of white and green teas, for which chemical synthesis is complex, not only possesses strong antiradicalar activity but also can inhibit nitration reactions, modulate carcinogen-metabolizing enzymes, trap ultimate carcinogens and inhibit cancer cell proliferation. The recent patents on the tea manufacture, extracts preparation and health-promoting properties are reviewed in this manuscript, especially in what concerns the chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic activities of tea polyphenols.

Many aroma compounds, used to flavor food products, are used in a solid state, after encapsulation. Synthetic or natural polymers are the common matrices used to entrap these volatiles. This paper reviews the recent patents of versatile matrices and methods used in flavor microencapsulation. The encapsulation ratio depends on both the carriers' physicochemical properties and the characteristics of the aroma compound. The patents about flavor encapsulation methods are spray drying, fluidized bed coating, melt extrusion, complex coacervation, aqueous diffusion and novel fatcoating etc. All these methods have both advantages and disadvantages. In brief, spray drying is very convenient but unsuitable for heat sensitive flavor and stored with moisture instability. Fluidized bed coating is costly but having better storage stability. Melt extrusion is suitable for large-scale production but having bad particle size distribution. Complex coacervation has good capsule size uniformity but controversial safety. Aqueous diffusion has excellent safety but low efficient encapsulation. Novel fat-coating has good encapsulation efficiency but uncontrollable size distribution.

Green tea is one of the most consumed beverages in the world. Presently, Camellia sinensis has become a source not only for the development of several food extracts but also nutraceutical, cosmetic and medicinal purposes. The technology developed to produce these extracts aims to improve the organoleptic characteristics of the products as taste and smell, and their shelf life. But it also searches to demonstrate some medicinal attributes like antioxidant, anti-aging, anti-tumor and anti-viral activities in relation to the chemical composition of the green tea catechins, especially (-)- epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). The target of this review is to present the various patents related to the extraction methods and their claims, and to discuss the evidence found in the literature about the pharmacological activities of green tea. It summarizes the recent progress in technology to obtain the green tea extract and in clinical studies on its applications. Health-promoting products and disease-preventing applications of green tea extract or compounds isolated from it also take part of this text.

Consumer demand for ready-to-eat products has stimulated the development of peeling techniques to prepare fresh-cut fruit and vegetables. The total peeling of oranges, that is, the removal of flavedo and albedo is difficult due to the adherence of the albedo to the segment membrane. Therefore, treatments which make peeling easier have been studied. This review comprehends patents and publications about orange peeling.

Prebiotics are food ingredients that promote host health beneficially due to their effect over the growth and activity of probiotic bacterial species. Prebiotic properties have been demonstrated for inulin-type fructans, galactoolicosaccharides and lactulose. Fructooligosaccharides (FOS), considered as inulin-type fructans, represent an important source of prebiotic compounds that are widely used as an ingredient in functional foods. FOS are produced by the action of fructosyltransferase from many plants, fungi and bacteria, and they are mainly composed of 1-kestose, nystose, and 1-β-fructofuranosyl nystose. Among them, 1-kestose has better therapeutic properties than those with a high polymeric degree (GFn > 4). FOS exhibited properties than those with a high polymeric degree (GFn>4). FOS exhibited properties such as low caloric values, non-cariogenic properties, decrease levels of lipids and cholesterol, help gut absorption of ions, and stimulate the bifidobacteria growth in the human colon. This review presents a summary of the patents related with FOS production by industrial sucrose biotransformation or the use of recombinant fructosyltransferase enzymes. Also, a brief description of recent FOS applications will be discussed.

A review was done with 25 scientific papers published in the past fifteen years with the objective to verify the effects of spray dried plasma added to diets for pigs weaned at different ages on the feed intake, weight gain, intestinal structure, and number of E. coli colonies. Beneficial effects of spray dried plasma were observed during the first week after weaning for weight gain and feed intake of piglets weaned at 14, 21, and 28 days old. The beneficial effects of spray dried plasma decreased with the increase in weaning age. Positive effects of spray dried plasma were observed on the morph-physiological conditions of the small intestine, with higher villi height and crypt depth, when substituted completely for the powdered skim milk in diets for weaned pigs. Also, pigs fed diets with the inclusion of spray dried plasma had decreased E. coli colonies in the small intestine of pigs weaned at 21, 28, and 35 days old. The research also indicated that spray dried plasma can replace antibiotic in diets to pigs weaned at 28 and 35 days old. The article presents some promising patents on feed intake for pigs weaned at different ages.

Excessive nitrogen and phosphorus supply to freshwater negatively affects water quality and ecosystem balance through a process known as eutrophication. This can lead to increased wastewater treatment costs, a reduction in the biological diversity and recreational value of natural water bodies. Besides, algal blooms can result in loss of livestock and human health issues. Therefore, efficient and reliable nitrogen and phosphorus removal methods are required. In wastewater containing relatively high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus (e.g. wastewater from chemical fertilizer plant, the supernate of dewatered sludge, etc.), these elements are difficult to remove economically to reach the appropriate compliance limits by biological methods. On the other hand, both nitrogen and phosphorus are nutrients for the plants, and recently, nitrogen and phosphorus recovery by precipitation (e.g. struvite) has drawn much attention, because nitrogen and phosphorus precipitates can be utilized as a fertilizer and both phosphorus and ammonium can be simultaneously removed. Thus, this review summarized nitrogen and phosphorus recovery methods, during which nitrogen and phosphorus compounds can be used as a raw material for the fertilizer industry, including the options of struvite and hydroxyapatite formation and other feasible using options. In this article most important patents are also discussed.

Selenium is an essential mineral for organic function on animal and human body. This mineral is important due to its function as antioxidant in organism, it neutralizes the free radicals that are resultant from many factors but especially by immune response. Diet is the major source of selenium. In poultry, the nutritional requirements for all nutrients and even selenium was normally calculated based on experimental trial using health animal in very low challenge conditions. However, on practical way animals are continually exposed to different infection challenges and intense vaccine program increasing immune system activation. On this aspect, there are studies that show that immune activation response increases the necessity of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. The objective of this review is to present recent patents information about the influence of selenium on immune response and practices applied on poultry production.

In late 19 century, great interest has arisen for food quality. This is referred as absence of pathogens in food (safety for consumers) and as nutritional quality of food (organoleptic characteristics). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is, among the molecular techniques developed in the last years, one of the most reliable, discriminative and reproducible technique. It can be used in clinical field for the identification of pathogens and the origin of outbreaks, and in food microbiology for the identification of pathogens (food borne disease surveillance) or of microorganisms responsible for the organoleptic characteristics of food. The present article shows some useful patents related to PFGE and importance in food quality.

The patents annotated in this section have been selected from various patent databases. These recent patents are relevant to the articles published in this journal issue, categorized by food additives, micro & macro-molecular food supplements, edible alternatives, food technology, nutraceuticals, healthy diet, nutritional value, calorie intake, malnutrition & related diseases, plant derivatives, agricultural technology and products, crop improvement and safety issues related to food, nutrition & agriculture.