Food Bioactive Compounds and Emerging Processing and Extraction Techniques

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Physics and (Bio)Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 3009

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University of Madrid, Plaza Ramón y Cajal, s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: vegetables and fruits; food sustainability

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Guest Editor
Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy
Interests: dairy ingredients; food processing; food structure
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Guest Editor
Department of Applied Physical Chemistry, Departmental Section of Food Science. Autonomous University of Madrid. C/Nicolás Cabrera, 9. 28049 Madrid, Spain
Interests: food bioactivity; food digestion; food formulation and food sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The study of bioactive compounds present in various food sources and their importance in human health has gained great relevance. Food bioactive compounds refer to molecules that, without being nutrients and being non-essential for our organism, have the capacity to modulate one or more metabolic processes that ultimately result in the promotion of health. Plant materials (such as fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, and seeds, among others) can be good sources of natural bioactive compounds. Plant foods are a complex matrix involving the combination of several types of bioactive compounds or phytochemicals, which has become a great challenge for the food industry in the extraction, separation, identification, and characterization of these compounds.

This Special Issue explores prominent advanced extraction procedures, including sample preparation, data acquisition, analysis, and statistical integration, adapted to sample complexity. The extraction procedure, as a part of food processing, is a very important step with a great impact on the analysis and characterization of bioactive compounds, as bioactive compounds are present in food at low concentrations, and the extraction technique is critical in achieving efficient extraction and simultaneously removing some potential compounds that can interfere.

We welcome different types of manuscript submissions, including original research articles and up-to-date reviews.

Dr. Rosa Maria Cámara
Dr. Francesca Bot
Dr. Elena Arranz
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • microextraction techniques
  • extraction techniques
  • supercritical extraction
  • subcritical fluid extraction
  • natural products extraction
  • green extraction
  • sustainable extraction methods
  • dispersive solid-phase extraction
  • ultrasound-assisted extraction
  • food bioactive compounds
  • polyphenols
  • antioxidants
  • carotenoids

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 1906 KiB  
Article
Optimization of the Microwave-Assisted Extraction Conditions for Phenolic Compounds from Date Seeds
by Asma Khalfi, María Carmen Garrigós, Marina Ramos and Alfonso Jiménez
Foods 2024, 13(23), 3771; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13233771 - 25 Nov 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2366
Abstract
Date seeds, often discarded during industrial processing, are an underexploited by-product rich in polyphenols with significant antioxidant potential. This study explores the extraction of polyphenols from date seeds using microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) with an organic solvent. The extraction process was optimized using response [...] Read more.
Date seeds, often discarded during industrial processing, are an underexploited by-product rich in polyphenols with significant antioxidant potential. This study explores the extraction of polyphenols from date seeds using microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) with an organic solvent. The extraction process was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM), focusing on extraction time, ethanol concentration, and temperature. The optimal extraction conditions were 46% (v/v) of ethanol, at 62 °C and for 27.3 min. Under these optimized conditions, the extraction yield and total phenolic content of the extract are 12.5% and 59 mg gallic acid equivalent g−1 of date seed, respectively, as confirmed by the experimental tests. The extract’s antioxidant activity was confirmed through DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP assays. High-performance liquid chromatography with diode–array detection (HPLC–DAD) identified major phenolic compounds, including procyanidin B1, catechin, quercetin-3,5′-di-O-glucoside, epicatechin, procyanidin B, and syringic acid, alongside eight other tentatively identified compounds. These findings underscore the potential of MAE as an environmentally friendly technique for producing polyphenol-rich extracts from date seeds, adding value to this by-product and opening avenues for its application in food and nutritional products. Full article
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