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Morus alba L. (M. alba) is a highly adaptable plant that is extensively incorporated in many traditional and Ayurveda medications. Various parts of the plant, such as leaves, fruits, and seeds, possess nutritional and medicinal value. M. alba has abundant phytochemicals, including phenolic acids, flavonoids, flavonols, anthocyanins, macronutrients, vitamins, minerals, and volatile aromatic compounds, indicating its excellent pharmacological abilities. M. alba also contains high nutraceutical values for protein, carbohydrates, fiber, organic acids, vitamins, and minerals, as well as a low lipid value. However, despite its excellent biological properties and nutritional value, M. alba has not been fully considered as a potential functional food ingredient. Therefore, this review reports on the nutrients and bioactive compounds available in M. alba leaves, fruit, and seeds; its nutraceutical properties, functional properties as an ingredient in foodstuffs, and a microencapsulation technique to enhance polyphenol stability. Finally, as scaling up to a bigger production plant is needed to accommodate industrial demand, the study and limitation on an M. alba upscaling process is reviewed.

Functional foods include enhanced, enriched, fortified, or whole foods that impart health benefits beyond their nutritional value, particularly when consumed as part of a varied diet on a regular basis at effective levels. Marine sources can serve as the sources of various healthy foods and numerous functional food ingredients with biological effects can be derived from these sources. Microalgae, macroalgae, crustaceans, fungi, bacteria fish, and fish by-products are the most common marine sources that can provide many potential functional food ingredients including phenolic compounds, proteins and peptides, and polysaccharides. Neuroinflammation is closely linked with the initiation and progression of various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. Activation of astrocytes and microglia is a defense mechanism of the brain to counter damaged tissues and detrimental pathogens, wherein their chronic activation triggers neuroinflammation that can further exacerbate or induce neurodegeneration. Currently, available therapeutic agents only provide symptomatic relief from these disorders and no therapies are available to stop or slow down the advancement of neurodegeneration. Thereffore, natural compounds that can exert a protective effect against these disorders have therapeutic potential. Numerous chemical compounds, including bioactive peptides, fatty acids, pigments, alkaloids, and polysaccharides, have already been isolated from marine sources that show anti-inflammatory properties, which can be effective in the treatment and prevention of neuroinflammatory disorders. The anti-inflammatory potential of marine-derived compounds as functional food ingredients in the prevention and treatment of neurological disorders is covered in this review.

Maize (corn) consists of germ, endosperm and pericarp, with different chemical compositions. During wet milling, the maize is disintegrated into the main product starch and by-products, including maize germ, maize fibre and maize gluten (the technical term for maize/corn endosperm-specific proteins and not the same as wheat gluten). These by-products are used as low-value animal feed products. The maize germ contains high amounts of tocols and phospholipids, the maize gluten is rich in carotenoids and the maize fibre fraction is rich in phytosterols and complex carbohydrates. Each by-product has a potential to serve as a precursor in the manufacture of functional food ingredients or nutraceuticals that have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hypocholesterolaemic, hypolipidaemic and hypoglycaemic properties. These food ingredients/nutraceuticals can be obtained through physical, chemical or enzymatic processes. Some nutraceuticals and food ingredients with market potential include maize/corn fibre gum, oil, arabinoxylans and xylooligosaccharides from maize fibre; maize germ oil and phospholipid ester from maize germ; and carotenoids and oligopeptides from maize gluten. This review focuses on current and prospective research into the use of maize germ, maize fibre and maize gluten in the production of potentially high-quality food ingredients or nutraceuticals.

Sea fennel (Crithmum maritimum L.) is a perennial, strongly aromatic herb that has been used since ancient times in cuisine and folk medicine due to its renowned properties. Recently described as a “cash” crop, sea fennel is an ideal candidate for the promotion of halophyte agriculture in the Mediterranean basin due to its acknowledged adaptation to the Mediterranean climate, its resilience to risks/shocks related to climate changes, and its exploitability in food and non-food applications, which generates an alternative source of employment in rural areas. The present review provides insight into the nutritional and functional traits of this new crop as well as its exploitation in innovative food and nutraceutical applications. Various previous studies have fully demonstrated the high biological and nutritional potential of sea fennel, highlighting its high content of bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, carotenoids, ω-3 and ω-6 essential fatty acids, minerals, vitamins, and essential oils. Moreover, in previous studies, this aromatic halophyte showed good potential for application in the manufacturing of high-value foods, including both fermented and unfermented preserves, sauces, powders, and spices, herbal infusions and decoctions, and even edible films, as well as nutraceuticals. Further research efforts are needed to fully disclose the potential of this halophyte in view of its full exploitation by the food and nutraceutical industries.

This study presents a comparative evaluation of four drying methods for carrot, red beet, and pumpkin pomace to produce natural functional food ingredients. The work addresses the valorization of 35–45% vegetable processing waste—a rich source of bioactive compounds—aligning with circular bioeconomy principles and Kazakhstan’s goals for deep processing of agricultural raw materials. The compared methods were convective drying (CD), ultrasound pretreatment + convective drying (US + CD), vacuum-microwave drying (VMD), and ultrasound pretreatment + vacuum-microwave drying (US + VMD). Drying kinetics, water activity, physicochemical and functional properties of powders, retention of bioactive compounds, color characteristics, thermal stability, and sensory attributes were assessed. Kinetics were fitted using Midilli et al., Page, and Weibull models. US + VMD provided the highest drying acceleration (6–11 times faster than CD), reaching final moisture of 5.1–5.9%, water activity aw 0.27–0.31 in 80–170 min, and bioactive compound retention of 90–95% (carotenoids 92–95%, betalains 90–94%). It also delivered superior flowability (Carr’s index 22.5–30.4%), dispersibility (80–88% in 30 s), and thermal stability (75–85% at 200 °C). Acceleration varied by raw material: maximum for beet (up to 11×) due to soluble sugars and nitrates, minimum for pumpkin (5.5–8×) due to dietary fibers and pectins, and intermediate for carrot (6–9×) influenced by carotenoids’ dielectric properties. The results highlight US + VMD’s strong potential for producing functional powders to replace synthetic additives in food systems. Effective method selection and parameter optimization require consideration of raw material type and rheological characteristics.

The strategic recycling of fish processing byproducts as functional materials has attracted increasing attention for sustainable development and human health. In this study, we investigated the dermatological impact of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) byproduct enzyme hydrolysates (OKPE) administered as a dietary supplement in mice. After eight weeks of OKPE administration, epidermal integrity was improved, as evidenced by a significant attenuation of transepidermal water loss (TEWL). These phenotypic improvements were associated with the regulation of aquaporin-mediated water transport, hyaluronan metabolism, and epidermal differentiation programs. Furthermore, OKPE intake promoted accelerated collagen biosynthesis. Amino acid profiling revealed that OKPE is uniquely enriched in residues essential for both natural moisturizing factor (NMF) synthesis and collagenous scaffold formation. Collectively, these findings suggest that OKPE has potential as a functional food ingredient for reinforcing the skin barrier and improving skin hydration.

Current food transformation processes must face the food waste issue by developing valorization processes to reintroduce by-products in the economic cycle and contribute to circular economy, generating social and economic value, and ensuring permanence of agricultural and rural activities. In the present paper, the results of a collaboration project between a regional agri-food cooperative and university are summarized. The project aimed to revalorize a series of vegetable wastes (carrot, leek, celery, and cabbage) from the fresh and ready-to-eat lines of the cooperative, by producing functional powders to be used as functional food ingredients. Vegetables residues were successfully transformed into functional ingredients by hot air drying or freeze-drying, and variables such as storage conditions and grinding intensity prior to drying were considered. Twenty-five vegetable powders were obtained and characterized in terms of physicochemical and antioxidant properties. Results showed that drying (mainly hot air drying) allowed obtaining stable powders, with very low water activity values, and a significantly increased functionality. Vegetable waste powders could be used in the food industry as coloring and flavoring ingredients, or natural preservatives, or either be used to reformulate processed foods in order to improve their nutritional properties.

Brown macroalgae are rich sources of nutrients and health-promoting compounds. Nevertheless, their consumption is still limited by their strong organoleptic characteristics, thus requiring the development of extraction strategies to profit from their nutritional value. To fulfil this, two sequential extraction approaches were developed, differing in the solvent used in the first extraction step, water in approach 1 or food-grade ethanol in approach 2, to obtain economic and affordable extracts rich in specific compounds from Fucus vesiculosus. The use of water in the first step of extraction allowed us to recover water-soluble phlorotannins, laminarans and mannuronic-rich alginates, making the subsequent 70% ethanol extract richest in fucoxanthin (0.07% algae DW), and the hot water fractions purest in fucoidans and alginates with a lower mannuronic-to-guluronic (M/G) ratio (2.91). Conversely, when beginning extraction procedures with 96% ethanol, the recovered yields of phlorotannins increased (0.43 g PGE/100 g algae DW), but there was a concomitant seven-fold decrease in the recovery of fucoxanthin in the subsequent 70% ethanol extract. This approach also led to less pure hot water fractions containing fucoidans, laminarans and alginates with a higher M/G ratio (5.50). Overall, this work unveiled the potential of the first extraction steps in sustainable and holistic cascade strategies to modulate the composition of food-grade extracts, creating prospects of their application as tailored functional ingredients in food products.

This study proposes a process based on the application of high-voltage pulsed electric field (PEF) in combination with pH shift for protein and solute release from fresh edible seaweed from Gracilaria sp.. The PEF was administered using a custom-made generator within and electroporation cell with sliding electrodes. The applied PEF parameters comprised 1000 V applied voltage, 50 µs pulse duration, 200 pulses delivered at 3 Hz frequency, and an inter-electrode gap ranging from 3.9 to 4.4 mm. The pH shift extraction was performed through a combination of fractions extracted sequentially at pH-shift steps spanning the pH range of 1 to 12. Both PEF and pH played pivotal roles in the fractionation of Gracilaria sp., enhancing protein release compared to water extraction, PEF pre-treatment, or pH shift alone. The combination of PEF and sequential pH washes (pH 1 to 12) resulted in a total solute release of 9.61 ± 0.04% and protein release of 28.02 ± 0.2% with essential amino acid (EAA) content of 63.6 ± 5.3%, and branched amino acids (BCAA) content of 3.47 ± 0.06%. It is noteworthy that PEF significantly increased the EAA and BCAA content of the protein extracts, irrespective of pH shifts. These findings underscore the promising potential of PEF pre-treatment in extracting proteins from edible seaweeds.

Tropaeolum tuberosum (mashua) is a native Andean tuber recognized for its high nutritional and bioactive compound content. Among the various morphotypes, the black and yellow variants show potential differences in composition and functionality. This study aimed to compare the thermo-energetic, nutritional, and physicochemical characteristics of two morphotypes (black and yellow) of Tropaeolum tuberosum flour from the Peruvian Andes. Flours were obtained from tubers harvested in Ayacucho, Peru, and analyzed using elemental analysis for carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur (CHNS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and bomb calorimetry. The empirical formula is CH1.74O0.91N0.06S0.005 for black mashua and CH1.78O0.92N0.05S0.005 for yellow mashua. Black flour exhibited higher protein (17.6% vs. 14.8%) and fat contents (8.0% vs. 6.7%), along with nearly double the iron content. Both flours showed similar starch granule morphology and gelatinization enthalpy (~2 J/g), but the black flour had higher gelatinization temperatures. Calorimetric analysis revealed a greater net calorific value (qNCV) in black mashua flour (4157 ± 22 kcal/kg) than in yellow flour (4022 ± 19 kcal/kg). The thermogravimetric profiles indicated good thermal stability with approximately 30% residual mass. These findings suggested that black mashua flour possesses superior nutritional and energy characteristics, supporting its application in functional food formulations and energy-rich gluten-free products.