Pine Bark Extract: Nutrition and Metabolism

Increasing evidence highlights the potential of Pine Bark Extract (PBE) derived from Pinus pinaster Aiton and related taxa as a natural source of antioxidants with a high content of bioactive polyphenols, including proanthocyanidins and anthocyanidins. PBE has been successfully used in food formulation and processing, nutraceuticals, or pharmaceuticals, for example, as antioxidants in the meat industry and as additives in juice, wine, and noodle production. However, there remain important gaps in our understanding of the metabolic kinetics in living organisms. The development of techniques for isolation and purification of bioactive metabolites using for example LC/MS or HPLC has advanced our understanding of PBE’s chemistry. MRM, SPR, DARTS, Network Analysis, Molecular Docking (combined with benchwork assessing affinity), Multi-omics, and Bioinformatics enable the identification of potential targets' active fractions. Analytical techniques now allow a better understanding of the distributions in different tissues and organs, providing new insights into decoding its metabolism. There is an interest in the potential of PBE in preventing and treating metabolic diseases, e.g. obesity, diabetes, hypertension, chronic inflammation, or Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and an understanding of potential action mechanisms.

This research topic aims to explore the detailed chemical characterization of different types of PBE, the isolation and purification of the potentially active metabolites, and metabolic kinetic models for a better understanding of the nutritional and pharmacological potential of PBE. through their presence, concentration, availability, and activity in different foods and their effects on different tissues and organs of the human body.

The scope includes the chemical characterization of different types of PBE, the structure of the active metabolites, PBE’s nutritional functions or the role in maintaining food quality, absorption and metabolic kinetic models, and the role in preventing and treating metabolic diseases. Bioinformatic studies are also welcome. However, such studies cannot be based solely on analysis of publicly available datasets such as PharmMapper, BrugBank, and /or GenBank, etc. It is essential to have an independent validation cohort for statistically significant confirmation of the findings communicated.

We welcome, but are not limited to, submissions related to the following:

● Isolation and purification of nutraceutical components in PBE

● Identification of metabolites, including intermediate and end products

● Cellular and molecular mechanisms of PBE as food preservatives, including both nutritional function and food quality

● Cellular and molecular mechanisms of the nutritional effects of PBE, identification of target organelles or molecules

● Human randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and clinical studies of the nutritional effects of PBE

All the manuscripts submitted to the collection will need to fully comply with the Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version here). Importantly, we expect a detailed description of the material used in the pharmacological experiments or a clinical study. Therefore, we also expect that the MS follows the standards established in the ConPhyMP statement Front. Pharmacol. 13:953205.

For submission to Fr. Pharmacol., Sect. Ethnopharmacol, please ascertain that the ethnopharmacological context is clearly described and that the material investigated is characterized in detail.