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Bioactive Molecules in Foods: From Sources to Functional Applications

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 1655

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Biochemistry and Food Chemistry, The University of Life Sciences, Skromna 8 St., 20-704 Lublin, Poland
Interests: food compounds; peptides; antioxidant properties; food technology, enzyme inhibitory; metabolic syndrome
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Microbiology, The University of Life Sciences, Leszczyńskiego 7 St., 20-069 Lublin, Poland
Interests: environmental microbiology; environmental biotechnology; bioactive compounds; antimicrobial activity of natural compound
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor Assistant
Department of Biochemistry and Food Chemistry; University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, Poland
Interests: bioactive components; food chemistry; functional food; encapsulation; spray-drying
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Food is a source of ingredients that provides the body with energy and affect its proper functioning. Many play a key role in regulating biochemical processes and exhibit many bioactive properties such as antioxidant, antidiabetic, antiobesity, or antimicrobial. Molecules from food may prevent diseases, including diseases of civilization such as hypertension, depression, obesity, or cancer. Moreover, food compounds may be used in food technology as ingredients that improve the quality and durability of food.

Therefore, it is important to search for new sources of bioactive food ingredients and the possibility of their use in food production, diet, or dietary supplements. Bioactive food compounds may be obtained from plants, animals, or microorganisms, but nowadays there is a search for new or alternative sources of food with the “zero waste” principle.

For this Special Issue on “Bioactive Molecules in Foods: From Sources to Functional Applications”, we welcome papers that provide information about the origin of food ingredients and their biological activity that can be used in nutrition or food products to improve the proper organism functioning.

Dr. Anna Jakubczyk
Dr. Kamila Rybczyńska-Tkaczyk
Guest Editors

Dr. Katarzyna Lisiecka
Guest Editor Assistant

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.

Keywords

  • food compounds
  • biological activity
  • nutrition
  • health
  • food products
  • diet supplementary

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 3141 KiB  
Article
Biorefining Brazilian Green Propolis: An Eco-Friendly Approach Based on a Sequential High-Pressure Extraction for Recovering High-Added-Value Compounds
by Guilherme Dallarmi Sorita, Wilson Daniel Caicedo Chacon, Monique Martins Strieder, Camilo Rodriguez-García, Alcilene Monteiro Fritz, Silvani Verruck, Germán Ayala Valencia and José A. Mendiola
Molecules 2025, 30(1), 189; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules30010189 - 6 Jan 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1400
Abstract
Propolis is a valuable natural resource for extracting various beneficial compounds. This study explores a sustainable extraction approach for Brazilian green propolis. First, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) process parameters were optimized (co-solvent: 21.11% v/v CPME, and temperature: 60 °C) to maximize [...] Read more.
Propolis is a valuable natural resource for extracting various beneficial compounds. This study explores a sustainable extraction approach for Brazilian green propolis. First, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) process parameters were optimized (co-solvent: 21.11% v/v CPME, and temperature: 60 °C) to maximize yield, total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant capacity, and LOX (lipoxygenase) inhibitory activity. GC–MS analysis identified 40 metabolites in SFE extracts, including fatty acids, terpenoids, phenolics, and sterols. After selecting the optimum SFE process parameters, a sequential high-pressure extraction (HPE) approach was developed, comprising SFE, pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) with EtOH/H2O, and subcritical water extraction (SWE). This process was compared to a similar sequential extraction using low-pressure extractions (LPE) with a Soxhlet extractor. The HPE process achieved a significantly higher overall yield (80.86%) than LPE (71.43%). SFE showed higher selectivity, resulting in a lower carbohydrate content in the non-polar fraction, and PLE extracted nearly twice the protein amount of LPE–2. Despite the HPE selectivity, LPE extracts exhibited better acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and LOX inhibition, demonstrating that the neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory activity of the extracts may be associated with a symbiosis of a set of compounds. Finally, a comprehensive greenness assessment revealed that the HPE process proved more sustainable and aligned with green chemistry principles than the LPE method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactive Molecules in Foods: From Sources to Functional Applications)
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