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Foods
Special Issues
Health-Promoting Effects and Mechanisms of Functional Food Ingredients
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Health-Promoting Effects and Mechanisms of Functional Food Ingredients

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutraceuticals, Functional Foods, and Novel Foods".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 March 2025 | Viewed by 3841

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jing Meng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, China
Interests: nutrition metabolism and disease regulation; bioactive compounds; lipid metabolism; targeting delivery
Prof. Dr. Feijun Luo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Hunan Key Laboratory of Grain-Oil Deep Process and Quality Control, Hunan Key Laboratory of Forestry Edible Resources Safety and Processing, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, China
Interests: functional foods; targeting delivery; nutrition and health
Prof. Dr. Haixia Yang

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: phytochemicals; prevention or treatment of chronic diseases; lipid metabolites and cancer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the development of science and technology, as well as the in-depth investigation of food chemicals and biological functions, more attention has been paid to the role of food in health promotion. Most acute and chronic diseases in humans are related to long-term unhealthy diets; therefore, studying the health-promoting effects of the bioactive ingredients of functional foods is of great significance. Using analytical chemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, histopathology and other technologies to study the interaction of functional food ingredients with organism biomacromolecules, gut microbiota, etc., can help us to further explore the mechanisms of active ingredients in the treatment and prevention of diseases (such as cancer, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease) and in health promotion. Constructing targeted delivery systems to improve the bioavailability of functional food ingredients can also reveal the interaction mechanisms and health-promoting effects that occur with the organism at the molecular level, allowing precise nutritional intervention to be achieved.

Dr. Jing Meng
Prof. Dr. Feijun Luo
Prof. Dr. Haixia Yang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • functional food ingredients
  • bioactive compounds
  • nutrition metabolism
  • health promotion and disease regulation
  • bioavailability
  • targeting delivery

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 4370 KiB  
Article
Enhancing the Hypolipidemic and Functional Properties of Flammulina velutipes Root Dietary Fiber via Steam Explosion
by Chao Ma, Liying Ni, Mengxue Sun, Fuxia Hu, Zebin Guo, Hongliang Zeng, Wenlong Sun, Ming Zhang, Maoyu Wu and Baodong Zheng
Foods 2024, 13(22), 3621; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13223621 - 13 Nov 2024
Viewed by 445
Abstract
Flammulina velutipes is an edible mushroom widely cultivated in China. As a by-product of Flammulina velutipes, the roots are rich in high-quality dietary fiber (DF). In order to obtain high-quality soluble dietary fiber (SDF), steam explosion (SE) is used as an effective [...] Read more.
Flammulina velutipes is an edible mushroom widely cultivated in China. As a by-product of Flammulina velutipes, the roots are rich in high-quality dietary fiber (DF). In order to obtain high-quality soluble dietary fiber (SDF), steam explosion (SE) is used as an effective modification method to improve the extraction rate and avoid the loss of active substances. Mounting evidence shows that SDF alleviates lipid metabolism disorders. However, it is not well understood how the influence of SDF with SE pretreatment could benefit lipid metabolism. In this study, we extracted a soluble dietary fiber from Flammulina velutipes root with an SE treatment, named SE-SDF, using enzymatic assisted extraction. The physicochemical and structural properties of the SE-SDF were investigated, and its hypolipidemic effects were also analyzed using oleic-acid-induced HepG2 cells. In addition, the anti-obesity and hypolipidemic effects of SE-SDF were investigated using a high-fat diet (HFD) mouse model. The results indicate that SE treatment (1.0 MPa, 105 s) increased the SDF content to 8.73 ± 0.23%. The SE-SDF was primarily composed of glucose, galactose, and mannose. In HFD-fed mice, SE-SDF significantly reduced weight gain and improved lipid profiles, while restoring liver function and reducing injury. This work provides an effective method for the processing of fungi waste and adds to its economic value. In future studies, the structural characteristics and the anti-obesity and gut microbiota regulation mechanisms of SE-SDF will be explored in depth, supporting its high-value utilization in healthcare products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health-Promoting Effects and Mechanisms of Functional Food Ingredients)
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15 pages, 5148 KiB  
Article
Benzyl Isothiocyanate and Resveratrol Synergistically Alleviate Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Colitis in Mice
by Jianan Liu, Qian Zhang, Hongshun Hao, Jingran Bi, Hongman Hou and Gongliang Zhang
Foods 2024, 13(13), 2078; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13132078 - 1 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 940
Abstract
The aim of our study was to investigate whether the combination of benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) and resveratrol (RES) has a synergistic effect on the inhibition of inflammation in colitis. The results revealed that the BITC and RES combination (BITC_RES) was more effective than [...] Read more.
The aim of our study was to investigate whether the combination of benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) and resveratrol (RES) has a synergistic effect on the inhibition of inflammation in colitis. The results revealed that the BITC and RES combination (BITC_RES) was more effective than either substance alone at significantly alleviating the symptoms of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis in mice, including the prevention of colon shortening and loss of body weight, a reduction in the disease activity index, and prevention of colon damage. Similarly, compared with the DSS group, BITC_RES reduced myeloperoxidase (MPO) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) levels in the mouse colon by 1.4–3.0-fold and 1.4-fold, respectively. In addition, the combination of BITC and RES upregulated the inflammatory factor IL-10 by 1.3- and 107.4-fold, respectively, compared to the individual BITC and RES groups, whereas the proinflammatory factors, including TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6, were downregulated by 1.1–7.4-, 0.7–3.6-, and 0.6–2.6-fold, respectively, in the BITC_RES group compared with the individual groups. Gut microbiome analysis indicated that BITC_RES remodeled the structure of gut bacteria at the phylum, family, and genus levels, upregulating the abundance of the phylum Bacteroidetes and the family Muribaculaceae and the genus norank_f_Muribaculaceae and downregulating the abundance of the phylum Firmicutes. Significant correlations between the relative levels of these proinflammatory cytokines and changes in the gut microbiota were found using Pearson’s correlation analysis. BITC and RES exhibited synergistic effects by reshaping the gut microbiota and modulating the level of serum cellular inflammatory factors, thus exerting a protective effect against colitis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health-Promoting Effects and Mechanisms of Functional Food Ingredients)
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15 pages, 5888 KiB  
Article
Sea Cucumber Peptide Alleviates Ulcerative Colitis Induced by Dextran Sulfate Sodium by Alleviating Gut Microbiota Imbalance and Regulating miR-155/SOCS1 Axis in Mice
by Jing Mao, Yunjiao Zhao, Lechen Wang, Tao Wu, Yan Jin, Jing Meng and Min Zhang
Foods 2023, 12(18), 3434; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12183434 - 15 Sep 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1647
Abstract
Sea cucumber peptides have been proven to exhibit a variety of biological activities. Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic disease characterized by diffuse inflammation of the mucosa of the rectum and colon with increasing incidence and long duration, and is difficult to cure. [...] Read more.
Sea cucumber peptides have been proven to exhibit a variety of biological activities. Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic disease characterized by diffuse inflammation of the mucosa of the rectum and colon with increasing incidence and long duration, and is difficult to cure. The effect of sea cucumber peptide on UC is currently unknown. In this study, 1.5% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) was added to the drinking water of mice to induce a UC model, and the daily doses of sea cucumber peptide (SP) solution of 200 mg/kg·BW, 500 mg/kg·BW, and 1000 mg/kg·BW were given to UC mice to detect the relieving effect of SP. The results showed that SP can reduce the disease activity index (DAI) of UC mice induced by DSS and can alleviate colon shortening, intestinal tissue damage, and the loss of intestinal tight junction proteins (Claudin-1, Occludin). SP decreased the spleen index, pro-inflammatory factors (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α), and myeloperoxidase (MPO) levels in UC mice. SP can alleviate the imbalance of gut microbiota in UC mice, increase the abundance of the Lachnospiraceae NK4A136 group, Prevotellaceae UCG-001, and Ligilactobacillus, and reduce the abundance of Bacteroides and the Eubacterium rum group, as well as alleviating the decrease in short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) content in the feces of UC mice. Notably, SP inhibited miR-155 expression in the colon tissue of UC mice and increased its target protein, suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1), which acts as an inflammatory inhibitor. In summary, the ameliorative effect of SP on UC may be achieved by improving the imbalance of gut microbiota and regulating the miR-155/SOCS1 axis. This study provides a new idea for developing SP as a nutritional supplement to maintain intestinal health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health-Promoting Effects and Mechanisms of Functional Food Ingredients)
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