Bio-Accessibility/Availability of Bioactive Compounds from Natural Food Sources

Dear Colleagues,

For several decades, the food science community has pursued the promotion of human health through the study of bioactive compounds or compound mixtures from food matrices and food industry byproducts. In consequence, a vast amount of information focused on the beneficial properties of such raw materials or their main compounds, e.g., antioxidants, hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, neuroprotective, immunomodulatory, and antiviral, can be found in the literature.

Such studies are relevant to recognize the tentative human health-promoting capabilities of food and food byproducts. However, the effect of the digestion process on such bioactive materials must be considered, since its assigned bioactivity could be enhanced or attenuated or vanish along their journey through the gastrointestinal tract.

In this sense, bioaccessibility assays are crucial to evaluate the preservation of bioactivity after digestion. In some cases, bioactivity is exerted by compounds present in the bioaccessible fraction via, e.g., the modulation of the enterocyte’s gene expression. However, other bioactive compounds must pass the intestinal barrier to reach their targets. For this, bioavailability studies using cell culture or simulated transmembrane transport models are necessary.

This Special Issue aims to gather recent research on the bioaccessibility and bioavailability of bioactive compounds from simple or complex food matrices, enriched food extracts, or purified food ingredients. We encourage researchers to contribute original research and reviews articles on recent advances in this field of food science, which are imperative to validate the beneficial health properties of food-based consumption. 

Dr. Alicia Gil-Ramírez
Dr. Vanesa Benítez García
Dr. Yolanda Aguilera Gutiérrez
Guest Editors

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