Plant food is a large portion of the human diet. Many phytochemicals have shown medical or health benefits, such as antioxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties. Understanding the functionality of these phytochemicals is important to better fulfill their health benefits. Although various phytochemicals have shown pharmacological health benefits, the health promotion of these phytochemicals could not be fully realized due to their poor aqueous solubility, low stability, and susceptibility to changes in the external and gastrointestinal tract environment. Various delivery systems have been developed to improve their solubility, stability, bioaccessibility, bioavailability, control or target release properties. However, some obstacles still need to be resolved regarding current delivery systems development. Using traditional synthesized materials in food delivery systems might cause health or environmental concerns, e.g., some food materials used in the delivery system would be easily degraded under food processing conditions or digested in the gastrointestinal tract. Moreover, the fabrication process of some delivery systems is costly, and complicated with low yielding, thus being difficult for industrialization. Research on nutraceuticals' control or target release under certain conditions is still limited. Therefore, developing an advanced delivery system with high stability, environmentally-friendly, good control/target release ability, high safety for consumers, and a price and scale suitable for industrialization is worth further study.
The loading capacity, protection ability, delivery efficiency, and control-release ability of food delivery systems are highly correlated to their stability, physicochemical properties, and interactions between phytochemicals and delivery systems. Understanding these functional properties of the different delivery systems is vital to design suitable delivery systems for target phytochemicals. This research topic aims to collect research and review papers on advanced phytochemicals and their delivery systems about their functionalities, design, characterizations, and in vitro and in vivo efficiency under various conditions, especially on advanced delivery systems with high stability, environmentally friendly, good control/target release ability, high safety for consumers, and at a price and scale suitable for industrialization.
The scope of this research topic includes but is not limited to:
· New phytochemicals identified and their functionality;
· New method to fabricate delivery systems at a price and scale suitable for industrialization;
· Advanced delivery systems with control-/target release properties;
· In vitro or in vivo efficiency and mechanisms of advanced phytochemicals and their delivery systems.
Plant food is a large portion of the human diet. Many phytochemicals have shown medical or health benefits, such as antioxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties. Understanding the functionality of these phytochemicals is important to better fulfill their health benefits. Although various phytochemicals have shown pharmacological health benefits, the health promotion of these phytochemicals could not be fully realized due to their poor aqueous solubility, low stability, and susceptibility to changes in the external and gastrointestinal tract environment. Various delivery systems have been developed to improve their solubility, stability, bioaccessibility, bioavailability, control or target release properties. However, some obstacles still need to be resolved regarding current delivery systems development. Using traditional synthesized materials in food delivery systems might cause health or environmental concerns, e.g., some food materials used in the delivery system would be easily degraded under food processing conditions or digested in the gastrointestinal tract. Moreover, the fabrication process of some delivery systems is costly, and complicated with low yielding, thus being difficult for industrialization. Research on nutraceuticals' control or target release under certain conditions is still limited. Therefore, developing an advanced delivery system with high stability, environmentally-friendly, good control/target release ability, high safety for consumers, and a price and scale suitable for industrialization is worth further study.
The loading capacity, protection ability, delivery efficiency, and control-release ability of food delivery systems are highly correlated to their stability, physicochemical properties, and interactions between phytochemicals and delivery systems. Understanding these functional properties of the different delivery systems is vital to design suitable delivery systems for target phytochemicals. This research topic aims to collect research and review papers on advanced phytochemicals and their delivery systems about their functionalities, design, characterizations, and in vitro and in vivo efficiency under various conditions, especially on advanced delivery systems with high stability, environmentally friendly, good control/target release ability, high safety for consumers, and at a price and scale suitable for industrialization.
The scope of this research topic includes but is not limited to:
· New phytochemicals identified and their functionality;
· New method to fabricate delivery systems at a price and scale suitable for industrialization;
· Advanced delivery systems with control-/target release properties;
· In vitro or in vivo efficiency and mechanisms of advanced phytochemicals and their delivery systems.