State of the Art on Functional Virgin Olive Oils Enriched with Bioactive Compounds and Their Properties

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2017, 18(3), 668. 

doi:10.3390/ijms18030668

 Virgin olive oil, the main fat of the Mediterranean diet, is per se considered as a functional food—as stated by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)—due to its content in healthy compounds. The daily intake of endogenous bioactive phenolics from virgin olive oil is variable due to the influence of multiple agronomic and technological factors. Thus, a good strategy to ensure an optimal intake of polyphenols through habitual diet would be to produce enriched virgin olive oil with well-known bioactive polyphenols. Different sources of natural biological active substances can be potentially used to enrich virgin olive oil (e.g., raw materials derived from the same olive tree, mainly olive leaves and pomaces, and/or other compounds from plants and vegetables, mainly herbs and spices). The development of these functional olive oils may help in prevention of chronic diseases (such as cardiovascular diseases, immune frailty, ageing disorders and degenerative diseases) and improving the quality of life for many consumers reducing health care costs. In the present review, the most relevant scientific information related to the development of enriched virgin olive oil and their positive human health effects has been collected and discussed.

A Critical Review of Bioactive Food Components, and of their Functional Mechanisms, Biological Effects and Health Outcomes.

Curr Pharm Des. 2017;23(19):2731-2741

doi: 10.2174/1381612823666170317122913

Background:

Eating behaviours are closely related to some medical conditions potentially leading to death such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Healthy eating practices, maintaining a normal weight, and regular physical activity could prevent up to 80% of coronary heart disease, 90% of type-2 diabetes and onethird of all cancers.

Method:

Over the last two decades, the food industry has invested much effort in research and development of healthier, more nutritious foods. These foods are frequently designated "functional" when they contain nutritional components required for healthy living or "nutraceuticals" when intended to treat or prevent disease or disorders through a variety of bioactive (e.g., antioxidant, antimicrobial, immunomodulatory, hypocholesterolaemic) functions that are performed by functional enzymes, probiotics, prebiotics, fibres, phytosterols, peptides, proteins, isoflavones, saponins or phytic acid, among other substances.

Results:

Some agricultural and industrial residues have proven to be excellent choices as raw materials for producing bioactive compounds and have been proposed as potentially safe natural sources of antimicrobials and/or antioxidants for the food industry. Functional food ingredients containing bioactive compounds could be used as plant extracts by pharmaceutical and food industries.

Conclusion:

Bioactive food components influence health outcomes.

Perspective on pre- and post-natal agro-food exposure to persistent organic pollutants and their effects on quality of life

Environment International

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2017.01.001

Background

Adipose tissue constitutes a continual source of internal exposure to organic pollutants (OPs). When fats mobilize during pregnancy and breastfeeding, OPs could affect foetal and neonatal development, respectively.

Scope and approach

The main aim of this review is to deal with pre- and post-natal external exposure to organic pollutants and their effects on health, proposing prevention measures to reduce their risk. The goal is the development of a biomonitoring framework program to estimate their impact on human health, and prevent exposure by recommending some changes in personal lifestyle habits.

Key findings and conclusions

It has been shown that new studies should be developed taking into account their cumulative effect and the factors affecting their body burden. In conclusion, several programs should continuously be developed by different health agencies to have a better understanding of the effect of these substances and to develop a unified public policy.

Approach of Different Properties of Alkylammonium Surfactants using Artificial Intelligence and Response Surface Methodology

Tenside, Surfactants and Detergents

http://www.hanser-elibrary.com/doi/abs/10.3139/113.110483

Response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) architectures to predict the density, speed of sound, kinematic viscosity, and surface tension of aqueous solutions were developed. All models implemented using the root mean square error (RMSE) for training and validation phase were evaluated. The ANN models implemented show good values of R2 (upper than 0.974) and low errors in terms of average percentage deviation (APD) (lower than 2.92 %). Nevertheless, RSM models present low APD values for density and speed of sound prediction (lower than 0.31 %) and higher APD values around 5.18 % for kinematic viscosity and 14.73 % for surface tension. The results show that the different individual artificial neural networks implemented are a useful tool to predict the density, speed of sound, kinematic viscosity, and surface tension with reasonably accuracy.