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Pumpkin seed oil (PSO), a rich source of nutrients, is extracted from the seeds of different pumpkin varieties for food and medicines. This article aims to provide an evidence‐based review of the literature and to explore the extraction technologies, nutritional properties, and biological activity of PSO. From previous literature, PSO contains a large proportion of unsaturated fatty acids, with linoleic acid as the main component, and an amount of tocopherol, phytosterol, and phenolic acids. Some differences in the yield, composition, and physicochemical properties of PSO can be associated with the pumpkin's cultivars and the extraction methods. Some novel technologies involved in supercritical fluid extraction, enzyme‐assisted aqueous extraction, and ultrasound‐assisted extraction have been replacing the conventional technologies gradually as promising methods for the safe, non‐polluting, and effective recovery of PSO. This healthy vegetable oil was reported by several in vitro and in vivo studies to have potential protective roles in oxidative stress, inflammation, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Croton gratissimus Burch. is a deciduous shrub used in traditional medicines and a local traditional herbal tea in South Africa. C. gratissimus is used in treating several disease conditions, including cough, influenza, colds, malaria, fever, bleeding gums, chest complaints, indigestion, skin inflammation, earache, respiratory disorders, diabetes, and oedema. This review focuses on the botanical attributes, distribution, traditional uses, phytochemistry, nutritional constituents and pharmacological properties of C. gratissimus. A wide-range search of previous literature on various scientific databases, including Google, Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, theses, dissertations, and ethnobotanical textbooks, was conducted. The search showed that C. gratissimus has several reported traditional uses, with over 55 compounds identified and isolated from it. Some of the compounds include cembrane-, trachylobane- and pimarane-type diterpenes, triterpenes, sesquiterpenes, sterols, flavonoids and flavonoids glycosides. The bioactive compounds had biological activities such as antioxidant, antiplasmodial, anticancer, antibacterial, vasorelaxant, and cholinesterase inhibitory action. C. gratissimus is reported to have antimicrobial, antidiabetic, antiparasitic, antiviral, antioxidant, haemostatic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, toxicity, and immune-boosting properties. Other pharmacological activities of C. gratissimus include analgesic, anticonvulsant, antipyretic, nephroprotective, and ulcerogenic properties. C. gratissimus' nutritional constituents include total sugar, protein, amino acids, fat, dietary fibre, carbohydrate, energy, ash, moisture, dry matter, and calcium. It is hoped that the present review will add further value to the scientific research on C. gratissimus and boost the increased interest in the study, development, and sustainable commercial exploitation of C. gratissimus as a medicine and as a health herbal tea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staghorn sumac ( Rhus typhina ) is native to North America, and has been used by indigenous peoples for food and non-food applications for a long time. It has been adapted to the other parts of the world for cultivation as a potential source of functional food ingredients. This review summarises the updated information on the chemical composition and diverse biological activities of staghorn sumac. Various factors affect the chemical composition, function retention during processing, and nutritional properties of staghorn sumac-derived products. These factors include botanical characteristics and environmental conditions, extraction and quantification methods, and processing parameters. Various innovative and potential uses of staghorn sumac in food, nutraceutical and cosmetic industries are suggested on the basis of the chemical constituents. This review provides a scientific basis for the development of staghorn sumac as a sustainable economic plant for food and other industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A range of chemical constituents were determined for eight seaweed species collected and processed for supply to the food and drink sector. • The chemical profiles of the individual seaweed species studied were consistent. • Little variation was found in chemical constituents as a result of differences in collection site and storage duration. • However, there was significant variation between species. • Scottish seaweed contains chemicals that can be value-added products for food industry. The limited understanding of the effect of pre-and post-harvest techniques still hinders the full exploitation of seaweed. Here, the effect of harvest site, long term storage and species on the elemental composition, fatty acid profile, lipid content, and antioxidant properties were determined in eight intertidal seaweed species common to Scotland, harvested for potential food application and stored for up to 128 weeks. Result showed that the most significant variation was due to species, with no statistical link found for the combined interaction effect of both storage duration and harvest site in most cases, except for the antioxidant parameters and some selected elements, which was limited to some seaweed species. Overall, our result showed that the chemical profiles of the seaweed species studied were remarkably consistent and unaffected by long term storage. Thus, suggesting that seaweeds sampled from Scotland could be a valuable resource for the development of functional foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was undertaken to assess the changes in nutritional composition, anthocyanins, and volatile compounds during 3 successive processes (soaking, steaming, and roasting) for black rice tea production. Significant ( p<0.05) decreases of cyanidin-3-glucoside and peonidin-3-glucosidetotal content were presented in black rice grains during soaking, steaming, and roasting. However, only steaming and roasting caused significant ( p<0.05) decreases in the contents of total starch and crude fat, whereas accompanied with a stable level of total starch during all the processes. Furthermore, 94 of volatile compounds were identified in the raw and processed black rice. Nonanal, butylated hydroxytoluene, 1-hexanol, naphthalene, and 1-octen-3-ol were the main volatile compounds. These volative compounds extracted from raw black rice grain varied widely compared to the processed materials. The study indicated that processing could significantly affect the profiles of nutritional compositions, anthocyanins, and volatile compounds during the production of black rice tea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objectives of this study were to investigate physicochemicals and antioxidant activities of new red rice ( Oryza sativa cv. Gunganghongmi (GH)) by comparing normal brown (Nampyeongbyeo, NB) and reported red rice (Jukjinjubyeo, JB) in Korea. The nutritional constituents, including protein, oil, sugar, fatty acid, GABA, and γ-oryzanol were not significantly different between normal brown and colored rice. However, the ethanol extract of GH showed the highest phenolic content (24.7 ± 1.3 mg g). The ethanol extracts of GH showed higher scavenging activities against DPPH (0.2 mg mL = 62.1 ± 2.5%) and ABTS (0.2 mg mL = 63.2 ± 3.5%) radicals. Moreover, GH more inhibited LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) production (13.2 ± 1.4 μM) than JB (18.3 ± 2.3 μM) and NB (22.1 ± 1.4 μM) at the same concentration (0.2 mg mL) without cytotoxicity. These results suggest that new red rice (GH) would be considered to be new functional rice due to its anti-oxidative effect and high nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical composition of various parts of the Chickpea plant, biological activities and functional molecular mechanism associated with these constituents of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). [Display omitted] • Chickpea contains various beneficial and abundant compounds. • The bioactivities have been observed in different parts of the chickpea plant. • The evidence is based on in vitro and in vivo studies of chickpea. • The synergistic and antagonistic effects between chickpea components are essential. • The functional form of the substances in humans should be given great attention. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), an annual plant of the Fabaceae family, is mainly grown in temperate and semiarid regions. Its biological activity and beneficial contribution to human health have been scientifically confirmed as an essential source of nutritional components. The objective of this review was to summarize and update latest available scientific data and information, on bioactive components in chickpea, bio-activities, and molecular mechanisms, which has mainly focused on the detection of relevant biochemical indicators, the regulation of signaling pathways, essential genes and proteins. The studies have shown that chickpea have significant multifunctional activities, which are closely related to the functionally active small molecule peptides and phytochemicals of chickpea. Significantly, numerous studies have only addressed the functional activity and mechanisms of single active components of chickpea, however, overlooking the synergy and antagonism between chickpea components, changes of functional active components in different processing methods, as well as the active form of the substances after human digestion and metabolism. Additionally, due to limitations in research methods and techniques, the structure of most functional active substances have not been determined, which makes it difficult to conduct interaction mechanism studies. Consequently, the significant bio-activity of the functional components of chickpea, synergistic and antagonistic effects and activity differences between bioactive components should be further studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of this research were to evaluate antioxidant activities and nutritional components, including phenolic acid, catechin, organic acid, sugar, and amino acid, of persimmon juice from persimmons grown in different regions around Korea. Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) exhibits potent antioxidant effects in DPPH, ABTS, reducing power, and FRAP methods of analysis. The levels of nutritional constituents showed significant differences among all the samples. In particular, tartaric acid, glucose, gallic acid, epicatechin gallate and aspartic acid were observed to be the predominant component for each of their general chemical groups, with total average contents of 1876.51 mg/kg, 62.69 g/kg, 12.73 mg/kg, 208.99 mg/kg, and 31.84 mg/100 g, respectively. Interestingly, persimmons from the Hadong region presented the highest sugar (130.60 g/kg), phenolic acid (42.27 mg/kg), and catechin (527.97 mg/kg) contents in comparison with other regional samples. Moreover, this location exhibited the greatest antioxidant activity with highest total phenolic (298.01 mg GAE/kg) and flavonoid (32.11 mg/kg RE) contents. Our results suggest that strong antioxidant activities of persimmons correlate with high phenolic acid and catechin contents, particularly gallic acid and epicatechin gallate. Additionally, these two compounds may be key factors when considering the useful ingredients of persimmon.