New Insights into Phytochemical Antioxidants in Food

Dear Colleagues,

Oxidative stress is thought to play a role in a variety of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and eye diseases such as cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. Several decades of dietary research findings suggest that consuming greater amounts of antioxidant-rich foods might help to protect against diseases.

The amount and type of antioxidants present in food depend on genetic factors (species and varieties), as well as on environmental ones such as cultivation or breeding conditions, time of collection, processing and storage of the final food. Studying the best combination of these factors to optimize the antioxidant content is a very relevant subject.

The preponderant agronomic practices in recent decades have led to a significant decrease in agrobiodiversity. In fact, 75% of world plant food is generated only from 12 species. This loss of agrobiodiversity has dramatically decreased the content and variety of antioxidant compounds in our diet. Consequently, the search for antioxidant compounds in so-called minor and under-utilized crops, even wild species, and the study of their applications in the field of functional foods and nutraceuticals deserve attention.

The aim of this Special Issue is to enrich the knowledge about the development of better methods for the isolation and purification of antioxidants from their respective sources. Furthermore, the systematic screening of the antioxidant activity and the biological activity of the plant food, providing new insights into the preservation of biodiversity, are welcome.

We encourage researchers to submit their original research and review articles that report results in the field of phytochemical antioxidants in food, with effects on different aspects of applied research, and particular attention paid to advancements in the identification of new cultivars or nutraceutical food to improve quantity and quality, creating a gene pool as the basis of future adaptation. Furthermore, studies that indicate the relationship between certain crops’ consumption and the lower incidence of diseases are welcome.

Dr. Sara Jaramillo-Carmona
Guest Editor

Dr. Rafael Guillén Bejarano
Dr. Sergio López
Co-Guest Editors

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