New Insights into Sources of Nutrients and Bioactive Compounds in Foods—2nd Edition

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2026 | Viewed by 393

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Department of Food Technology of Plant Origin, Poznań University of Life Sciences, 60-624 Poznań, Poland
2. Collegium Medicum, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University, Kraków, Poland
Interests: bioactive compounds; medicinal plants; antioxidants; edible insects; functional food; plant-based food additives; waste management in food system; plant-based meat analogues; biopolymers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Institute of Chemistry and Technical Electrochemistry, Poznan University of Technology, 4 Berdychowo St., 60-965 Poznań, Poland
Interests: LC-MS/MS; ITP; solid phase extraction; liquid–liquid extraction; non-ionic surfactant; selenium speciation; pharmaceutical residues
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Chemistry and Technical Electrochemistry, Poznan University of Technology, 4 Berdychowo St., 60-965 Poznań, Poland
Interests: thermogravimetric analysis; scanning electron microscopy; FT-IR spectroscopy; X-ray diffraction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Given the great success of the first volume of the Special Issue “New Insights into Sources of Nutrients and Bioactive Compounds in Foods” and the academic relevance of this topic, the journal Foods welcomes a second volume and invites authors to submit their new research to this Special Issue.

The agri-food industry generates huge amounts of waste every day, which is a serious problem for the environment. Therefore, the slogan "from waste to resources" has been promoted to reintroduce food waste into the economy as new raw materials—not only as nutrients, but also, above all, as compounds with targeted biological activity that can be used in the production of foods, including functional food. In this Special Issue of Foods, we would like to provide up-to-date information regarding novel and important achievements and the main challenges related to the isolation, characterization and uses of bioactive compounds in food science and technology.

Considering the abovementioned global circumstances, we would like to encourage leading scientists working on the topics of bioactive food, as well as those studying the biological activities of novel food ingredients, to submit original research or review papers. In particular, we invite original research papers and reviews that address any aspect of the use of novel bioactive compounds for food production and human nutrition. Papers on the study of medicinal plant bioactivity are also welcome.

Dr. Przemysław Kowalczewski
Dr. Joanna Zembrzuska
Dr. Paweł Jezowski
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.

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Keywords

  • alternative sources of nutrients
  • antioxidants
  • bioactive peptides
  • biotechnological and nanotechnological methods in food technology
  • isolation and characterization of bioactive compounds
  • medicinal plants
  • naturally derived active ingredients
  • novel raw materials for food production
  • phenolic compounds
  • waste and by-product valorization

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 2583 KB  
Article
Soil Amendment with Poultry Manure, Biochar, and Coenzyme A Enhances Yield and Nutritional Composition of Moringa oleifera Lam.
by Baba Mamudu, Cristina García-Viguera, Diego A. Moreno, Eli Gaveh, Francis Appiah, Irene Idun, Sonia Medina and Raúl Domínguez-Perles
Foods 2025, 14(20), 3527; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods14203527 - 16 Oct 2025
Viewed by 227
Abstract
This study assessed the combined application of poultry manure (Pm), biochar (B), and coenzyme A (CoA) into soils to enhance Moringa oleifera Lam. growth, biomass yield, and nutritional and phytochemical composition. This approach allowed us to cover the gap of knowledge on sustainable, [...] Read more.
This study assessed the combined application of poultry manure (Pm), biochar (B), and coenzyme A (CoA) into soils to enhance Moringa oleifera Lam. growth, biomass yield, and nutritional and phytochemical composition. This approach allowed us to cover the gap of knowledge on sustainable, low-cost agronomic management alternatives suitable for smallholder systems. To achieve this objective a field experiment was conducted using three treatments (control (no amendment), Pm + B, and Pm + B + CoA) and four consecutive harvests were monitored. Morphological traits (height, stem diameter, number of branches, and leaf yield) were recorded, and phytochemical analyses of glucosinolates and (poly)phenols were performed via HPLC-DAD-ESI/MSn. Mineral and trace elements were quantified by ICP-OES. The main results retrieved allowed describing the capacity of the combined use of Pm + B + CoA to enhance plant growth and productivity, thus increasing the moringa trees’ height of 226.3 by 39.5%, on average, relative to control plants. ILeaf yield and branch number augmented up to 7.0-fold and 2.5-fold, respectively, under amendment treatments. Petiole girth also increased significantly by >50% (p < 0.01). Phytochemically, Pm + B + CoA significantly elevated total phenolics, vicenin-2, and quercetin acetyl-hexoside in leaves by 2.8-fold, on average, relative to control. The glucosinolate content also augmented as a result of the soil amendments assayed by 51.0%, on average, in stems and petioles, under Pm + B + CoA, compared to control samples. From these results, it can be concluded that the combined use of poultry manure, biochar, and CoA significantly improved M. oleifera growth, biomass yield, and nutritional quality, with a particular efficiency concerning (poly)phenolic accumulation. This low-cost, sustainable amendment strategy provides a viable agronomic solution in regions suffering socioeconomic constraints that hinder access to high-cost agronomic management options. Therefore, this approach effectively links ecological soil management with improved productivity, nutritional value, and potential for food industries. Full article
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