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Stilbenes are phenolic compounds naturally synthesized as secondary metabolites by the shikimate pathway in plants. Research on them has increased in recent years due to their therapeutic potential as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, cardioprotective and anti-obesity agents. Amongst them, resveratrol has attracted the most attention, although there are other natural and synthesized stilbenes with enhanced properties. However, stilbenes have some physicochemical and pharmacokinetic problems that need to be overcome before considering their applications. Human clinical evidence of their bioactivity is still controversial due to this fact and hence, exhaustive basis science on stilbenes is needed before applied science. This review gathers the main physicochemical and biological properties of natural stilbenes, establishes structure-activity relationships among them, emphasizing the current problems that limit their applications and presenting some promising approaches to overcome these issues: the encapsulation in different agents and the structural modification to obtain novel stilbenes with better features. The bioactivity of stilbenes should move from promising to evident.

Gnetol is a stilbene whose characterization and bioactivity have been poorly studied. It shares some bioactivities with its analogue resveratrol, such as anti-inflammatory, anti-thrombotic, cardioprotective and anti-cancer activities. However, the low solubility of stilbenes may limit their potential applications in functional foods. Encapsulation in cyclodextrins could be a solution.The antioxidant activity of gnetol was evaluated by 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical cation and ferric reducing antioxidant power methods (Trolox equivalents 13.48 μmol LThese results could increase interest of gnetol as an alternative to the most studied stilbene, resveratrol, as well as aid in the development of more stable inclusion complexes that improve its aqueous solubility and stability so that it can be incorporated into functional foods. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John WileySons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

The food industry is constantly attempting to develop better products that will have a positive effect on health. Feiraco® and Clesa®, expressed their intention to create novel products using UNICLA® milk as a matrix to develop functional foods. In this respect, β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) at 1% was able to reduce the cholesterol concentration in Feiraco-UNICLA® milk products by around 87-85%. Products were fortified with omega-3 from fish oil with α- and β-CD acting as carriers. It was possible to add around 50% of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA), with a high diet proportion of fibre and similar organoleptic properties to commercial omega-3 products. 80% of a sensory panel found our formulations satisfactory. The final product was stable, and the bioaccessibilty of the fatty acids added to the milk was around 74%. These results as a whole satisfy the aid of Feiraco® and Clesa® to develop improved products.

Neochlorogenic acid, a less-studied isomer of chlorogenic acid, has been seen to posses antioxidant, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic effects, which makes it an interesting candidate for incorporation in functional foods. However, its poor solubility in water and susceptibility to oxidation make such a task difficult. To overcome that, its encapsulation in cyclodextrins (CDs) is proposed. The fluorescence of neochlorogenic acid in different pH conditions was analyzed, and caffeic acid was proved to be the fluorescent moiety in the molecule. An encapsulation model whereby the ligand poses two potential complexation sites (caffeic and D-(-)-quinic moieties), showed that α-CD and HP-β-CD formed the best inclusion complexes with neochlorogenic acid, followed by M-β-CD, β-CD and γ-CD. Molecular docking with the two best CDs gave better scores for α-CD, despite HP-β-CD providing stabilization through H-bonds. The encapsulation of chlorogenic acid led to a similar CD order and scores, although constants were higher for α-CD, β-CD and M-β-CD, lower for HP-β-CD, and negligible for γ-CD. The protonation state affected these results leading to a different order of CD preference. The solubility and the susceptibility to oxidation of neochlorogenic acid improved after complexation with α-CD and HP-β-CD, while the antioxidant activity of both isomers was maintained.

The ability of cyclodextrins to enhance the water solubility of lipophilic compounds is used to modify the water-based Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) method to measure antioxidant activity in vitro. However, the use of these solubility enhancers may alter fluorescent readings, which has led to contradictory results being described in the literature. The low specificity of these oligosaccharides and their controlled release effect can result in cyclodextrins forming inclusion complexes with other reagents in the assay, changing the kinetics. In this study, the cause of cyclodextrins' interference in the ORAC method is evaluated through a physicochemical and computational approach. Cyclodextrins showed a clear increase in the fluorescent signal both in the presence and absence of the antioxidant oxyresveratrol, the precise effect being dependent on the type and concentration of cyclodextrin. Although the glucidic nature of cyclodextrins could play a minimal role in this effect, it seems that the main cause was the encapsulation of other substrates in the reaction, fluorescein and AAPH.

Cyclodextrins (CDs) are a good alternative to reduce or enhance different biomolecule characteristics and have demonstrated great results in food science. However, CDs present intrinsic limitations that can be solved by derivative synthesis. This review represents a survey of the state of the art of CD-based materials and their uses in food science. A deep review of the structure is carried out and different groups for ordination are suggested. After that, different applications such as cholesterol complexation or its use as sensors are reviewed. The derivatives show novel and promising activities for the industry. A critical perspective of the materials suggests that they might not present toxicity, although more studies are required. These points suggest that the research in this field will be increased in the following years.

Inflammation is a biological response of the immune system to harmful stimuli. Importantly, inflammation is also a hallmark of several human diseases such as cancer or diabetes. Novel drugs to treat this response are constantly researched, but the formulation is usually forgotten. Cyclodextrins (CDs) are a well-known excipient for complexing and drug delivery. Anti-inflammatory drugs and bioactive compounds with similar activities have been favored from these CD processes. CDs also illustrate anti-inflammatory activity per se. This review tried to describe the capacities of CDs in this field, and is divided into two parts: Firstly, a short description of the inflammation disease (causes, symptoms, treatment) is explained; secondly, the effects of different CDs alone or forming inclusion complexes with drugs or bioactive compounds are discussed.

An antimicrobial is an agent that kills microorganisms or stops their growth. Although different strategies such as the use of a protective atmosphere are being developed, the use of antibacterial and/or antifungal substances in food science is increasing because of the need to transport one food product from a country to another. However, these molecules sometimes present solubility or stability problems that make their effective period shorter or give undesirable organoleptic characteristic to the products. Among the possible solutions, their complexation with cyclodextrins (CDs) is a good strategy to prevent any disadvantageous properties. For that reason, a description of the preparation, characteristics and application of antimicrobial complexes is described here. The common techniques to form the complexes are explained and the possible factors which could affect their encapsulation capacity and release properties are also illustrated. Finally, a complete report about possible applications is presented. CDs could be used to (1) increase the solubility of antimicrobials, (2) increase the stability of the same, (3) improve their release and delivery, (4) prevent volatilization, (5) modify their organoleptic properties, (6) extract antimicrobials from their source and (7) analyze their presence in foods. The complexation of these compounds with CDs can be considered a safe and easy alternative for prolonging the shelf-life of food products.

The stilbenes are bioactive molecules with a big amount of health benefits and many possibilities in pharmaceutical industry. Several authors have reported a high number of properties for these compounds, including anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, neuroprotective or antimicrobial activities. However, their low aqueous solubility and their ease degradation could lead to low concentration of bioactive compound in the target tissue. For this reason, in the present study, the inclusion complexes of oxyresveratrol with α-, β-, and γ- cyclodextrins are characterized using DSC, TGA, SEM and molecular docking in order to increase the stability of the molecule. All these techniques showed that β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) forms the best complexes. The stability of oxyresveratrol and oxyresveratrol/ β-CD complexes in different aqueous solutions was evaluated by measuring oBrix, pH and UV-Vis spectra. The effect of encapsulation on the solubility and antioxidant activity of oxyresveratrol was also analysed. The results indicated that solutions were stable for at least five weeks, especially when stored in darkness, and that cyclodextrin supplementation leads to a higher concentration and antioxidant capacity of the solubilized bioactive compound than when it is not used. These results and the increase in antioxidant activity could be interesting for the pharmaceutical industry and for drugs enriched in oxyresveratrol.

Neochlorogenic acid, a less-studied caffeoylquinic acid, isomer of chlorogenic acid, has been seen to possess antioxidant, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic effects, which makes it an interesting bioactive compound for incorporation in drugs, nutraceuticals or functional foods. However, its poor solubility in water and susceptibility to oxidation make such a task difficult. To overcome that, its encapsulation in cyclodextrins (CDs) is proposed. The fluorescence of neochlorogenic acid in different pH conditions was analyzed, and caffeic acid was proved to be the fluorescent moiety in the molecule. An encapsulation model whereby the ligand poses two potential complexation sites (caffeic and D-(-)-quinic moieties), showed that α-CD and HP-β-CD formed the best inclusion complexes with neochlorogenic acid, followed by M-β-CD, β-CD and γ-CD. Molecular docking with the two best CDs gave better scores for α-CD, despite HP-β-CD providing stabilization through H-bonds. The encapsulation of chlorogenic acid led to a similar CD order and scores, although constants were higher for α-CD, β-CD and M-β-CD, lower for HP-β-CD, and negligible for γ-CD. The solubility and the susceptibility to oxidation of neochlorogenic acid improved after complexation with α-CD and HP-β-CD, while the antioxidant activity of both isomers was maintained. These results could lead to obtaining more stable inclusion complexes with caffeoylquinic acids for applications in the pharmaceutical industry.

Despite being saturated, a huge quantity of “novel” functional food products reaches the food market every day and companies are looking for new products to catch consumers’ attention. In the present study, the inclusion complexes of oxyresveratrol with α-, β- and γ-CD are characterized using DSC, TGA, SEM and molecular docking and their complexing capacities arecompared. As β-CD showed the best results, i) 0.2 mM oxyresveratrol alone, ii) 0.2 mM oxyresveratrol complexed with 8 mM β-CD and iii) 4 mM oxyresveratrol solubilized with 8 mM β-CD were used to fortify, juice and milk food models, and kept in typical storage conditions (darkness and/or refrigerated) conditions for one month. The results showed that CD supplementation leads to a higher oxyresveratrol concentration and antioxidant capacity than when not used. Oxyresveratrol/β-CD food models were stable for five weeks. The most typical variables measured were compared. In vitro digestion pointed to similar bioaccessibility. The bacteriostatic effect was also studied and the greater effectiveness of oversaturated solutions was demostrated. These results should be useful for the food industry for designing hydrophilic products containing oxyresveratrol.

Background The food industry is constantly attempting to develop better products that will have a positive effect on health (commonly known as functional foods). In this respect, cyclodextrins (CDs) could be of interest because they are tasteless, non-caloric and odourless molecules with several valuable characteristics, such as a capacity to separate chiral compounds and solubilize or stabilize bioactive compounds (BaC). Scope and approach This review represents a revision of the state-of-the-art of CDs and their uses in the food industry. Key findings and conclusions We analysed their metabolism and regulatory aspects of current applications of CDs: as carriers, for removing components, to produce or extract BaC, their use as nanosensors or in food packaging. We study how inclusion complexed are formed referring to the most common techniques and parameters Moreover, how inclusion complexes are formed will be studied with reference to the most common techniques and parameters. In conclusion, their applications in the food and other industries will increase in the coming years without a doubt.

Niemann Pick disease Type C (NPC) is a recessive rare disease caused by the mutation on NPC1 and/or NPC2 genes changing the processing of the Low-density proteins (LDL) resulting in an accumulation of lipids in the cells. Until today there is not a cure, the current treatment is based on palliative affairs to reduce the symptoms and prevent its appearance. Among all the treatments proposed the use of cyclodextrins (CDs), nanocarriers which can complex cholesterol, is one of the most useful alternatives. Indeed, for several years 2-hydroxypropyl-β-CD (HPβ-CD) is approved as orphan drug for FDA and EMA to the treatment. However, different CDs based materials are created each year to improve the cholesterol uptake. This review is focused on the novelty of CD based materials for NPC treatment.

In this work we used natural and modified cyclodextrins (β-CD and HP-β-CD) as encapsulating agents to improve citronellal properties. Using fluorimetric techniques, its aggregation behavior was studied for the first time. Its critical micellar concentration was seen to vary with the presence of cyclodextrins, which form 1:1 stoichiometry complexes with citronellal. The encapsulation constants and the scores obtained by Molecular Docking were correlated. Chromatographic (GC–MS) and sensory analysis confirmed that cyclodextrins improve the persistence of the aroma. Finally, the antimicrobial effect of citronellal against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis in the presence and absence of cyclodextrins was studied. A combinatorial effect of citronellal, HP-β-cyclodextrin and Glucobay® as an antimicrobial mixture was observed. The results of this study not only demonstrated the potential of CD mixtures, but also that the growth caused by CD digestion may sometimes be greater that the antimicrobial effect of the agents used in this study.

The food industry needs cheap, fast and sensitive methods to increase the number of analyses that are routinely carried out; for this reason, new methods are constantly being sought. This paper describes a novel fluorescent nanosensor based on cyclodextrin (CD) to determine ellagic acid (EA). The encapsulation of EA in the presence of borax was studied. Firstly, the complexation of EA–borax was tested. The stoichiometry of the EA–borax complex showed a 1 : 2 complex, with KF1 = 2548 ± 127 M−1 and KF2 = 302 ± 15 M−1. Different CDs were used to obtain a 1 : 1 : 1 CD–EA–borax complex with γ-CD providing the best complexation constant (KF3 = 364 ± 18 M−1). Furthermore, when the accuracy and sensitivity of the nanosensor were tested using a crude blueberry extract, the CD/borax mixture provided an 18 times stronger signal than with the crude extract alone and 7 times stronger than that obtained using borax alone.