Plants (Basel)
July 2024
In the dynamic landscape of agriculture and food science, incorporating emergent crops appears as a pioneering solution for diversifying agriculture, unlocking possibilities for sustainable cultivation and nutritional bolstering food security, and creating economic prospects amid evolving environmental and market conditions with positive impacts on human health. This review explores the potential of utilizing emergent crops in Mediterranean environments under current climate scenarios, emphasizing the manifold benefits of agricultural and food system diversification and assessing the impact of environmental factors on their quality and consumer health. Through a deep exploration of the resilience, nutritional value, and health impacts of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) such as quinoa, amaranth, chia, moringa, buckwheat, millet, teff, hemp, or desert truffles, their capacity to thrive in the changing Mediterranean climate is highlighted, offering novel opportunities for agriculture and functional food development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe increasing use of hempseed in food products highlights the need for a comprehensive database for scientific research and industrial applications. In food development, information about the techno-functional properties of raw materials plays a crucial role in determining the suitability of each product for specific applications. Thus, this study aims to characterise three hempseed varieties (, and ), comparing their physicochemical and nutritional compositions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current trend in the food industry is towards "clean label" products with high sensory and nutritional quality. However, the inclusion of nutrient-rich ingredients in recipes often leads to sensory deficiencies in baked goods. To meet these requirements, physically modified flours are receiving more and more attention from bakery product developers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBread is a widely consumed food that has often been used as a vehicle for functional ingredients such as dietary fibre. Fibre-rich breads have beneficial physiological effects on health, helping to combat chronic pathologies such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain types of colon cancer. The aim of this study is to evaluate the technological and nutritional effects of the inclusion of buckwheat hull particles (BH) at two addition levels (3 and 6%) and two particle sizes (fine, D: 62.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrowave-assisted heat moisture treatment (MWT) was applied to quinoa grains, a nutritious gluten-free pseudocereal of great interest in food product development, to achieve the physical modification of the quinoa flour. The effect of treating quinoa grains at different initial water contents (WC; 10%, 20%, and 30%) in two operational systems was compared: one open at atmospheric pressure and variable WC (V system), and the other in hermetic containers at constant WC (C system). The morphological structure of the obtained flours and their techno-functional, rheological, and thermal properties were evaluated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe study evaluated the effect of autoclaving as a hydrothermal treatment on the quality and bioactivity of wheat bran (WB) with the objective of producing a natural ingredient with enhanced healthy properties. Nutritional, antioxidant, techno-functional and sensorial parameters were studied, and temperatures of 100, 115 and 130 °C were explored. Of these, 130 °C was found to be the best treatment, resulting in an ingredient with high storage stability, antioxidant properties, a four-fold increase in the concentration of free ferulic acid (compared with non-treated WB), and increased content of apigenin-6-C-arabinoside-8-C-hexoside, a flavonoid with reported antioxidant and antifungal properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWheat breads prepared from frozen partially baked breads were characterized by their content of rapidly digestible starch (RDS) and slowly digestible starch (SDS) by the in vitro starch digestibility method developed by Englyst. Breads with different contents and types of fibre and breads prepared with different fermentation processes were studied. Bread with inulin and with a double fermentation had the lowest RDS content of 58.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince vanadyl sulphate has demonstrated insulin-like effects on glucose metabolism in animal and human trials, and organic vanadium complexes are better absorbed by the intestinal tract than vanadyl species, in this work the complexation of oxovanadium(IV) with 2-acetyl-1,3-cyclopentanedione is studied. Kinetic and equilibria in aqueous 1:1 chelation are investigated spectrophotometrically in aqueous solution at 25 degrees C. The mechanism proposed to account for the kinetic data involves a reversible pathway where VO(+2) reacts with the enolate ion of the ligand.
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