Bioactive Peptides from Fermented Foods: Production Approaches, Sources, and Potential Health Benefits.

Microbial fermentation is a well-known strategy for enhancing the nutraceutical attributes of foods. Among the fermentation outcomes, bioactive peptides (BAPs), short chains of amino acids resulting from proteolytic activity, are emerging as promising components thanks to their bioactivities. Indeed, BAPs offer numerous health benefits, including antimicrobial, antioxidant, antihypertensive, and anti-inflammatory properties.

New insight on porcine carboxylesterases expression and activity in lung tissues.

Over the course of the last twenty years, there has been a growing recognition of the pig's potential as a valuable model for studying human drug metabolism. This study aimed to investigate the expression, enzymatic activity, inhibitory susceptibility, and cellular localization of carboxylesterases (CES) in porcine lung tissue not yet explored. Our results showed that CESs hydrolysis activity followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics in both cytosolic and microsomal fractions of porcine lung tissues (N = 8), with comparable hydrolysis rates for tested substrates, namely 4-nitrophenyl acetate (pNPA), 4-methylumbelliferyl acetate (4-MUA), and fluorescein diacetate (FD).

Assessment of Sourdough Fermentation Impact on the Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Potential of Pearl Millet from Burkina Faso.

Millet, a gluten-free cereal, has received attention for its environmental friendliness and higher protein content than other grains. It represents a staple food in many African countries, where fermentation is traditionally used for preserving food products and preparing different cereal-based products. This study aimed to assess the impact of sourdough fermentation on bioactive compounds and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of pearl millet from Burkina Faso.

Monitoring alkyl pyrazines in roasted hazelnuts by SHS-GC-IMS: IMS response assessment and standardization.

Gas chromatography coupled with ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is an analytical tool which is rapidly becoming widespread in the analysis of food volatiles. Despite this increasing popularity, an assessment of the IMS response for several flavor compound classes is not yet available. This study focuses on alkyl pyrazines and their determination in roasted hazelnut pastes.

Bio-Functional Activities of Tuscan Bee Pollen.

Bee pollen represents one of the most complete natural foods playing an important role in the diet for its health qualities and therapeutic properties. This work aimed to characterize a Tuscan bee pollen by evaluating its phytochemical profile and the in vitro and ex vivo antioxidant activities. The isolation and taxonomic and functional characterization of yeasts in the sample has been also conducted.

Chemical fingerprinting strategies based on comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography combined with gas chromatography-olfactometry to capture the unique signature of Piemonte peppermint essential oil (Mentha x piperita var Italo-Mitcham).

Accurate, reliable, and informative mapping of untargeted and targeted components across many samples is here performed by combining off-line GC-Olfactometry (GC-O) and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry with variable ionization energy (TOF MS featuring Tandem Ionization™). In particular, untargeted and targeted (UT) features patterns are processed by chromatographic fingerprinting, giving differential priority to potent odorants' retention-times regions. Distinguishing peppermint essential oil (EO) from Piedmont (Italy - Mentha × piperita L.

New benchmarks for costs and cost-efficiency of school-based feeding programs in food-insecure areas.

Background: School feeding is a popular intervention that has been used to support the education, health and nutrition of school children. Although the benefits of school feeding are well documented, the evidence on the costs of such programs is remarkably thin.

Objective: Address the need for systematic estimates of the cost of different school feeding modalities, and of the determinants of the considerable cost variation among countries.