Functional Foods and Natural Bioactive Compounds: Strategies to Face Metabolic Syndrome and Related Non-Communicable Diseases—2nd Edition

A special issue of Metabolites (ISSN 2218-1989).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 April 2026 | Viewed by 2

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos (CERELA), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), San Miguel de Tucumán T4000ILC, Tucumán, Argentina
Interests: functional foods; lactic acid bacteria; probiotics; postbiotics; symbiotics; metabolic syndrome; obesity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Bioprospección y Fisiología Vegetal (INBIOFIV), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET-UNT), San Miguel de Tucumán T4000ILC, Tucumán, Argentina
Interests: functional foods; fermented vegetable foods; fermented vegetable beverages; probiotics; lactic acid bacteria; Bacillus spp.; metabolic syndrome
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos (CERELA), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), San Miguel de Tucumán T4000ILC, Tucumán, Argentina
Interests: functional foods; lactic acid bacteria; probiotics; postbiotics; symbiotics; metabolic syndrome; obesity; feruloyl esterase
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) encompass long-term, multifactorial, noninfectious health disorders that are causing new epidemics in developed societies and reducing life expectancy, becoming the leading cause of death globally. in addition to cancer and chronic respiratory diseases, The main types of NCDs include pathologies closely related to metabolic syndrome, a clinical condition associated with at least five metabolic risk factors: abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. The perpetuation of these types of metabolic dysfunction can lead to the development of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and some types of cancer, among other pathologies. Many of these NCDs have, as common factors, the prevalence of chronic low-grade inflammation, oxidative stress, and intestinal dysbiosis. The main therapeutic guidelines for metabolic syndrome include lifestyle changes, chiefly through nutrition interventions. Often, however, these metabolic derangements require pharmaceutical therapies that are not always welcome or available.

In this context, the bioactive compounds found in functional foods and other biofunctional products, including fermented (dairy and vegetable) foods and beverages, probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, and postbiotics, can provide prophylactic and therapeutic alternatives in treating NCDs associated with metabolic syndrome. These biologically active ingredients are emerging as alternatives to alleviate metabolic syndrome and as prophylaxis for the amelioration of related NCDs. They represent multipurpose tools for addressing different aspects of metabolic disorders by reshaping the intestinal ecology and modulating metabolic homeostasis, gut barrier function, inflammatory response, and redox balance. This Special Issue will strengthen our knowledge concerning the role of bioactive compounds in functional foods and other biofunctional products to prevent or improve metabolic syndrome or NCDs. For this purpose, we welcome the contribution of original research articles or review papers exploring this key issue in human wellbeing.

Dr. Paola Gauffin-Cano
Dr. Sebastián Torres
Dr. Roxana Medina
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Metabolites is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2700 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

  • functional foods
  • bioactive compounds
  • fermented foods
  • fermented beverages
  • fermented vegetable foods
  • probiotics
  • prebiotics
  • synbiotics
  • postbiotics
  • metabolic syndrome
  • non-communicable diseases

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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