Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & Agriculture - Volume 3, Issue 1, 2011

The chicken eggshell and its membranes are an inexpensive and abundant waste material which exhibit interesting characteristics for many potential applications. The eggshell is formed mainly of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and is used widely as an animal feed, lime (Ca(OH)2) substitute or a fertilizer. Moreover, the associated eggshell membranes have a high content of bioactive components, as well as properties of moisture retention and biodegradability which have potential use for clinical, comestic, nutraceutical and nanotechnology applications. The eggshell membranes have been also used for biosorption of heavy metals and dyes and as a template to synthesize metal nanoparticles. The combination of nanosized calcium phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2) biomaterials synthesized from eggshell and eggshell membrane show promise to develop drug delivery system and nanowires for electronic devices. In addition, a derived product, the soluble eggshell membrane protein (SEP) has applications in tissue engineering. This review discusses the patented applications of eggshell membrane waste: shell and membrane for the last 10 years as well as their future applications.

Terpenoids represent the oldest known biomolecules, having been recovered from sediments as old as 2.5 billion years. Among plant secondary metabolites, they are the most abundant and diverse class of natural compounds. The diversity of terpenoids is probably a reflection of their many biological activities in nature, which has made them a widely used resource for traditional and modern human exploitation. They are usually the main constituents of essential oils of most plants offering a wide variety of pleasant scents from flowery to fruity, to woody or balsamic notes. For this reason terpenoids constitute a very important class of compounds for flavour and fragrance industries, in fact, in the US alone, the demand is forecast to grow 3.7 percent per year to $5.3 billion in 2012. The recent patents on production and extraction of terpenoids commonly used as natural flavouring compounds in food industries are reviewed in the present manuscript.

Sesame seed contains very high levels (up to 2.5%) of furofuran lignans with beneficial physiological activities, mainly sesamin, sesamolin, and sesaminol glucosides. Reported activities of sesame seed lignans include inter alias modulation of fatty acid metabolism, inhibition of cholesterol absorption and biosynthesis, antioxidant and vitamin E-sparing effects, hypotensive effects, improvement of liver functions in connection with alcohol metabolism, and antiaging effects. This review comprehends patents pertinent to the preparations and uses of sesame seed lignans in health promotion.

Herbal medicines in treatment of cancer as complementary and alternative therapy are accepted increasingly with growing scientific evidences of biomedical research and clinical trials. Anticancer drugs discovered from herbal medicines have a long history and some of them have been used in clinical setting as the conventional anticancer drugs. Actually, herbal medicines are a source for anticancer drug discovery and drug development. Recently, research continuously focuses on clues from traditional use of herbal medicines to develop new anticancer drugs in single pure compounds. On the other hand, standardized various extracts or fractions with anticancer effects or with adjuvant therapy in cancer treatment coming from single or mixed herbs are also accepted forms as dietary supplements and botanical drug products in the US for current statutory regulations. In the present paper, we analyzed the patented agents in the US from herbal medicines in recent ten years, both as potential anticancer extracts/fractions (containing multi-components) and single pure compound(s) that act as new anticancer substances. This review also highlighted the advances in knowledge about quality control, safety, efficacy and recent progress in anticancer candidates in patents of botanical drug products from herbal medicines.

The production and management of crops uses plastics for many applications (e.g., low tunnels, high tunnels, greenhouses, mulching, silage bags, hay bales, pheromone traps, coatings of fertilizers or pesticides or hormones or seeds, and nursery pots and containers for growing transplants). All these applications have led some authors to adopt the term “plasticulture” when discussing the use of plastic materials in agriculture and related industries. Unfortunately, the sustainability of this use of plastics is low, and renewability and degradability have become key words in the debate over sustainable production and utilization of plastic. Recently, researchers and the plastics industry have made strong efforts (i) to identify new biopolymers and natural additives from renewable sources that can be used in plastics production and (ii) to enhance the degradability (biological or physical) of the new ecologically sustainable materials. In the present review, we describe the main research results, current applications, patents that have been applied for in the last two decades, and future perspectives on sustainable use of plastics to support crop production. The article presents some promising patents on bio-based and biodegradable plastics for use in crop production.

Many epidemiological studies have provided evidence that a high intake of fruits and vegetables is associated with a reduced risk for the development of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Fruits and vegetables are known to contain health promoting components such as vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and dietary fibers, however, it is unclear which of these are responsible for the health promoting properties of fruits and vegetables. Aliphatic C17-polyacetylenes of the falcarinol type, which occur in common food plants of the Apiaceae family such as carrot, celeriac, parsnip and parsley, have demonstrated interesting bioactivities including antibacterial, antimycobacterial, and antifungal activity as well as anti-inflammatory, anti-platelet-aggregatory, neuritogenic and serotonergic effects. In addition, the cytotoxicity of falcarinol type polyacetylenes towards human cancer cells, bioavailability, and their potential anticancer effect in vivo indicates that these compounds may contribute to the health effects of certain vegetables and hence could be important nutraceuticals. The bioactivity of falcarinol type polyacetylenes occurring in food plants of the Apiaceae family, their possible mode of action and possible health promoting effects are discussed in this review as well as the effect of storage, processing and other factors that can influence the content of these compounds in root vegetables and products. Moreover, recent patents on bioactivity of falcarinol type polyacetylenes and inventions making use of this knowledge are presented and discussed.

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.