Phytonutrients refer to substances, including polyphenols, saponins, terpenes, phytosterols, carotenoids, etc., found in and/or derived from plants that have health benefits, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammation, anti-cancer properties. Plant foods are important sources of phytonutrients that have received great attention in recent decades since the increasingly mindful attitudes of consumers to their diets and health. Thus, there is a growing interest in the analysis of the content and composition of phytonutrients in plant foods, especially in recognition of novel phytonutrients with specific biological activity. Bioassay-guided purification is a well-established approach widely used for the discovery of novel phytonutrients in plant foods, which relies on subjecting mixtures of phytonutrients to iterative steps of fractionation and biological testing with the underlying strategy aimed at reducing the complexity of plant foods composition until a group or single phytonutrient with specific biological activity is secured. However, it has also been criticized for some real and perceived weaknesses, such as the process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, the trace phytonutrients can be easily lost, etc.
With the rapid development of new technologies and new materials in the field of analytical chemistry, the analysis of phytonutrients in complex plant foods can be achieved in more comprehensive, automatic, rapid, accurate, and trace manners. However, how to rapidly recognize the bioactive phytonutrient for specific targets without purification is still a key problem. Nowadays, some new techniques are proposed for rapid recognition of novel phytonutrients for specific targets in plant foods without purification, such as ligand-fishing, disease models-based metabonomics (cells or animal), etc. This topic aims to highlight recent advances in new method development and application for rapid recognition of bioactive phytonutrients for specific targets in plant foods.
The specific areas of interest include (but are not limited to):
• Development and application of new techniques for rapid discovery and recognition of phytonutrients with specific biological activity.
• Discovery and recognition of trace phytonutrients with specific biological activity from complex plant foods.
• Discovery and recognition of phytonutrients against multiple targets from complex plant foods.
Phytonutrients refer to substances, including polyphenols, saponins, terpenes, phytosterols, carotenoids, etc., found in and/or derived from plants that have health benefits, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammation, anti-cancer properties. Plant foods are important sources of phytonutrients that have received great attention in recent decades since the increasingly mindful attitudes of consumers to their diets and health. Thus, there is a growing interest in the analysis of the content and composition of phytonutrients in plant foods, especially in recognition of novel phytonutrients with specific biological activity. Bioassay-guided purification is a well-established approach widely used for the discovery of novel phytonutrients in plant foods, which relies on subjecting mixtures of phytonutrients to iterative steps of fractionation and biological testing with the underlying strategy aimed at reducing the complexity of plant foods composition until a group or single phytonutrient with specific biological activity is secured. However, it has also been criticized for some real and perceived weaknesses, such as the process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, the trace phytonutrients can be easily lost, etc.
With the rapid development of new technologies and new materials in the field of analytical chemistry, the analysis of phytonutrients in complex plant foods can be achieved in more comprehensive, automatic, rapid, accurate, and trace manners. However, how to rapidly recognize the bioactive phytonutrient for specific targets without purification is still a key problem. Nowadays, some new techniques are proposed for rapid recognition of novel phytonutrients for specific targets in plant foods without purification, such as ligand-fishing, disease models-based metabonomics (cells or animal), etc. This topic aims to highlight recent advances in new method development and application for rapid recognition of bioactive phytonutrients for specific targets in plant foods.
The specific areas of interest include (but are not limited to):
• Development and application of new techniques for rapid discovery and recognition of phytonutrients with specific biological activity.
• Discovery and recognition of trace phytonutrients with specific biological activity from complex plant foods.
• Discovery and recognition of phytonutrients against multiple targets from complex plant foods.
