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Extraction and Analysis of Natural Products in Food—4th Edition

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 879

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Biophysics, National Research Council, Palermo, Italy
Interests: food science; natural polyphenols; antioxidant action; nutraceutical properties
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests, CREA, Rome, Italy
Interests: bioactive compounds; polyphenols; vegetable extracts; food byproducts; nutraceutical activity; innovative extraction techniques
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the extractive production of natural products in the food industry, especially from different food byproducts, has seen significant development, and there has also been great progress in the separation and purification techniques of natural products. Natural products include constituents present inside plants, animals, insects, and marine organisms—mainly proteins, polypeptides, amino acids, a variety of enzymes, fats, oils, monosaccharides, vitamins, alkaloids, volatile oils, flavones, organic acids, terpenoids, antibiotics, and other natural chemical constituents. Therefore, natural products have become the source of active compounds (i.e., compounds with beneficial effects on human health, such as foodborne pathogen protection, etc.), and the extraction of natural products is particularly important in multidisciplinary studies.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect recent advances in extraction (conventional, emerging, and innovative methodologies) and analysis of natural products, including their sources, properties, and methods that have been developed to improve the extraction of compounds focusing on applications, scale-up, and process commercialization.

Dr. Valeria Guarrasi
Dr. Amenta Margherita
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. Molecules 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 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

  • natural products
  • extraction methodologies: green impacts and sustainability
  • separation and purification techniques
  • agri-food byproducts
  • natural bioactive compounds
  • food ingredients
  • industrial application

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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16 pages, 1091 KB  
Article
Co-Extraction of Policosanols and Phytosterols from Sorghum bicolor subsp. bicolor: A Mild Approach Unveiling New Bioactive Molecules
by Sarah Caronni, Francesca Sabatini, Elena Lonati, Barbara La Ferla, Paola Palestini, Alessandra Bulbarelli, Claudia Russo, Sandra Citterio and Heiko Lange
Molecules 2026, 31(4), 727; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules31040727 - 20 Feb 2026
Viewed by 393
Abstract
Phytochemicals have recently gained considerable attention for their therapeutic and nutraceutical potential. Particularly, policosanols and phytosterols have shown promising lipid-lowering effects through distinct mechanisms. Therefore, the combination of these two compound classes should offer synergistic benefits, enhancing cholesterol reduction. Despite various protocols having [...] Read more.
Phytochemicals have recently gained considerable attention for their therapeutic and nutraceutical potential. Particularly, policosanols and phytosterols have shown promising lipid-lowering effects through distinct mechanisms. Therefore, the combination of these two compound classes should offer synergistic benefits, enhancing cholesterol reduction. Despite various protocols having been developed for extracting these compounds from plant matrices, challenges remain regarding yields, high purity, non-toxicity and general biocompatibility of extracts. Tackling these aspects, this study provides an efficient co-extraction and purification method for policosanols and phytosterols from Sorghum bicolor subsp. bicolor, a plant rich in both such compounds. The newly developed protocol involved crude lipid extraction, saponification, column chromatographic purification and compound identification using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS). High yields for both policosanols and phytosterols were obtained with fractions pure and rich in a wide variety of compounds of both classes, some of which have never been described before for the species. Moreover, analyses revealed, for the first time, the presence of a variety of terpenes. The biocompatibility of the extracts has been evaluated as well, through MTT-based in vitro assays. The novel, promising approach would allow us to obtain compound-rich and safe extracts, suitable for nutraceutical applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Extraction and Analysis of Natural Products in Food—4th Edition)
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3 pages, 145 KB  
Correction
Correction: Wu et al. Current Status and Future Trends in Removal, Control, and Mitigation of Algae Food Safety Risks for Human Consumption. Molecules 2022, 27, 6633
by Guowei Wu, Dingling Zhuang, Kit Wayne Chew, Tau Chuan Ling, Kuan Shiong Khoo, Dong Van Quyen, Shuying Feng and Pau Loke Show
Molecules 2026, 31(5), 839; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules31050839 - 3 Mar 2026
Viewed by 294
Abstract
Removal of References [58,63,108] [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Extraction and Analysis of Natural Products in Food—4th Edition)
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