Dear Colleagues,

Numerous plants with abundant diversity worldwide are rich in nutrients and functional components, including dietary fibers, polyphenols, flavonoids, alkaloids, etc. Many have been proven to possess the special potential to maintain human health and exert various health-promoting effects, such as antioxidant, antibiotic, anti-inflammation, gastrointestinal protection, metabolism regulation, and cardiovascular protection. By integrating their relatively high safety and renewability, the exploration and utilization of functional components derived from plant foods have attracted significant attention in the food industry. However, several concerns must be addressed urgently. 1) Resource mining: Novel food resources from plant sources must be explored in order to address food resource shortages worldwide; meanwhile, the components in different plant samples vary dramatically depending on the variety, region, part (e.g. roots, stems, leaves, fruits, and seeds), and growth stage. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of the components in diverse plant food resources should be carried out. 2) Separation and chemical structure analysis: Efficient target extraction techniques for special components and comprehensive utilization techniques for the simultaneous extraction of multiple components from plant foods must be developed, as well as techniques for structural identification and quantitative analysis. 3) Biological characterization: The health-promoting effects and mechanisms of plant-food-derived components should be systematically investigated, including the structure–activity relationship, in vivo metabolism, interactions among the gut microbiota, and targets. In this Special issue, we welcome original articles, mini-reviews, full reviews, commentaries, and perspectives focusing on, but not limited to, the following:

• Components analysis in plant foods.
• Component detection techniques.
• Extraction techniques for plant-food-derived components.
• Health-promoting effects of plant-food-derived components.
• Structure–activity relationship for health-promoting effects of plant-food-derived components.
• In vivo metabolisms of plant-food-derived components.
• Interactions among gut microbiota and plant-food-derived components.
• Molecular mechanisms for health-promoting effects of plant-food-derived components.

Prof. Dr. Jinkai Zheng
Dr. Chengying Zhao
Guest Editors

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• plant foods
• functional components
• detection techniques
• extraction techniques
• health-promoting effects
• structure–activity relationship
• in vivo metabolisms
• gut microbiota
• molecular mechanisms