The close relationship between food intake and health promotion is not new; it dates back to Hippocrates’s famous “let food be your medicine and medicine be your food”, which is still as timely as ever. In recent years, some scientific evidence has supported this statement, showing that dietary plant extracts, or bioactive compounds isolated therefrom, are able to prevent or slow down the progression of chronic and degenerative diseases, making them particularly interesting from a nutraceutical point of view. On the other hand, extensive chemical investigations of functional plant extracts’ constituents are needed to rationalize certain bioactivity, in terms of efficacy and safety.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Nature represents an amazing source of inspiration, since it produces a great diversity of natural compounds selected by evolution, which exhibit multiple biological activities and applications. A large and very active research field is dedicated to identifying biosynthesized compounds, to improve/develop new methodologies, to produce/reuse natural compounds, and to assess their potential for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries, among others, and additionally, to understand their mechanism of action. This book is dedicated to presenting the most recent results on the development of natural compounds’ applications. Ten original research works, organized by applications, and two reviews are included. Each of them contributes to the knowledge advance, insofar as they present new applications for known products, new methodologies to obtain new products, or the evaluation of a given application, with the applications related to health promotion being the most frequently considered. These works are significant contributions and reinforce the dynamic field of natural products’ applications.

Listed by Unglue.it.

The research results presented in this book span the quest of Cape Kingdom Nutraceuticals, Prof. Patrick Bouic and Prof. Barbara Huisamen to scientifically validate the health promoting properties of an aqueous extract of the plant Agathosma. To accomplish this, they made use of both in vitro and in vivo models to understand and underscore the anecdotal information of the benefits of this product. Cell based studies highlighted anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic effects while animal-based studies were utilized to confirm the anti-diabetic effects whilst further elaborating on anti-obesity properties. In addition, technology aimed at small animals were used to follow blood pressure to demonstrate anti-hypertensive effects while ex vivo perfused hearts were studied to show that this extract also protected the heart against an ischaemic incident. In view of the current pandemic of obesity and non-communicable diseases, the research results presented in this book will be of special interest to the scientific community and health practitioners interested in cardiometabolic diseases and nutraceuticals as an alternative treatment option. In view of the failure of many pharmaceuticals to curb non-communicable diseases, these results are deemed of high importance

Listed by Unglue.it.

Nature has represented and still represents a great pool of biologically active compounds and, at the same time, is a source of inspiration. In the first phase, the researchers turned their attention to the new compounds isolated from plants and their characterization in terms of their beneficial effects on human health. Recently, however, there have been extensive studies on the synthesis of compounds analogous to plant-derived compounds in order to prevent or treat diseases such as diabetes, obesity, chronic liver diseases, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and so on. One of the mechanisms involved in the beneficial effect on human health is represented by plant-derived compounds’ anti-inflammatory effects.

Listed by Unglue.it.