Bioactive Compounds in Food and Their Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Today, there is a growing interest in healthy lifestyles and proper nutrition. Among the key factors influencing consumer health is the consumption of foods rich in bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, carotenoids, tocopherols, polysaccharides, peptides, alkaloids, saponins, vitamins, etc. Bioactive compounds are essential for human health due to their various biological functions, such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-microbial properties, offering great application potential as functional ingredients for food, supplements, and medicine. However, the susceptibility of bioactive compounds to environmental conditions, processing and storage makes their use in food production enormously challenging and causes many difficulties. An important aspect to consider when investigating bioactive compounds is their bioavailability, bioaccessibility and possible toxicity. Research on bioactive compounds in food and their use is extremely important, and the amount of research that exists on such a topic is growing significantly every year. Despite tremendous progress, there is always demand for more research on the effects of technological processes and storage conditions on the content of bioactive components and their interaction with other food components. The knowledge gained can help us to develop a food industry capable of meeting consumer demand for foods with high nutritional value.

We are pleased to invite researchers to submit articles for the Special Issue of Molecules entitled “Bioactive compounds in food and their applications”. We will publish original articles and reviews describing the functional properties of bioactive compounds in foods and their physicochemical, antioxidant, coloring, nutritional, sensory and microbiological properties.

The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight current research advances on bioactive compounds, focusing on structural identification, characterization and quantification in food. Other related topics include: potential health benefits; the interaction of compounds with the gut microbiome; interactions between these compounds and food matrices; changes during processing and preservation technologies; storage stability studies; application of advanced technologies to incorporate bioactive compounds into foods and nutraceuticals; and the sensory aspects of foodstuffs enriched with bioactive compounds.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Iwona Ścibisz
Dr. Mariola Kozłowska
Prof. Dr. Małgorzata Ziarno
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. 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.

• food processing
• food matrix
• storage
• functional foods
• phytochemicals
• bioactive nutrients
• nutraceuticals
• biological properties
• natural sources
• health benefits, applications in food industry