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Plants
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Bioactives from Plants: From Extraction to Functional Food Innovation
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Bioactives from Plants: From Extraction to Functional Food Innovation

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Phytochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 988

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Carlos Eduardo Narváez-Cuenca

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Guest Editor
Departamento de Química (Bogotá), Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia
Interests: mass spectrometry; food processing; food composition; nutrients; green extraction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit a manuscript to our Special Issue, “Bioactives from Plants: From Extraction to Functional Food Innovation”, dedicated to the cutting-edge research and developments in the field of bioactive compounds from plants and their applications in functional food innovation.

In recent years, bioactives extracted from plants have gained significant attention due to their promising health benefits and potential to contribute to the development of functional foods. The journey from extraction to innovation in food formulations is complex, involving an intricate understanding of both the molecular properties of bioactives and the technologies used to incorporate them effectively into food products. Therefore, we invite you to contribute with a scientific paper or a review on the topics covering this Special Issue.

Dr. Carlos Eduardo Narváez-Cuenca
Guest Editor

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. Plants 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

  • novel extraction methods
  • identification of bioactive compounds
  • quantification of bioactive compounds
  • bioactive compounds in food systems
  • bioactive compounds in food design

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 1225 KB  
Article
Influence of Various Fruit Preservation Methods on the Phenolic Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Prunus spinosa L. Fruit Extract
by Valentina Sallustio, Joana Marto, Lidia Maria Gonçalves, Manuela Mandrone, Ilaria Chiocchio, Michele Protti, Laura Mercolini, Barbara Luppi, Federica Bigucci, Angela Abruzzo and Teresa Cerchiara
Plants 2025, 14(15), 2454; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14152454 - 7 Aug 2025
Viewed by 722
Abstract
Wild edible plants, historically valued for their medicinal properties, can be a sustainable source of food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. The blue berries of Prunus spinosa L., known as blackthorns, have antioxidant, astringent, and antimicrobial benefits. To preserve these properties after harvesting, understanding the [...] Read more.
Wild edible plants, historically valued for their medicinal properties, can be a sustainable source of food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. The blue berries of Prunus spinosa L., known as blackthorns, have antioxidant, astringent, and antimicrobial benefits. To preserve these properties after harvesting, understanding the best storage methods is essential. In this study, blackthorns were preserved using different methods (air-drying, freezing, or freeze-drying) to determine the optimal procedure for preserving their antioxidant activity. The fruits were extracted using a 50:50 (V/V) mixture of ethanol and water. The different extracts were phytochemically characterized for their phenolic content and antioxidant activity. The Folin–Ciocalteu test revealed total phenolic contents of 7.97 ± 0.04, 13.99 ± 0.04, and 7.39 ± 0.08 (mg GAE/g raw material) for the three types of extracts, respectively. The total flavonoid contents were 2.42 ± 0.16, 3.14 ± 0.15, and 2.32 ± 0.03 (mg QE/g raw material), respectively. In line with the polyphenol analysis, the antioxidant activity as determined by DPPH method was higher for the frozen extract, with a value of 91.78 ± 0.80%, which was confirmed by the ROS test on keratinocytes. These results show that both air-drying and freeze-drying processes negatively impact the preservation of antioxidant activity in blackthorns, suggesting that freezing may be the best preservation method before bioactive compound extraction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactives from Plants: From Extraction to Functional Food Innovation)
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