Transforming stressed plants into healthy foods.

This paper presents the current status of transforming stressed plants into healthy foods and the future trends in this emerging field. Herein, we describe the three major key elements to advance this field, including a better understanding of the mode of action of oxidative stress on nutraceutical biosynthesis under pre- and postharvest scenarios either converting plants into biofactories of nutraceuticals or creating 'functional fresh produce' while preserving quality. We discuss the need of designing healthy products based on stressed fresh produce and by-products and present a pragmatic strategy to enhance nutraceuticals in plants, and finally we propose designing appropriate studies with stressed plants targeting immunomodulatory properties to determine preventive and therapeutic effects against chronic diseases and the appropriate recommended dose. [Display omitted] • Stressed plants can be transformed into healthy foods. • Oxidative stress plays a key role in nutraceutical biosynthesis. • Fresh produce, by-products, and waste can be used as sources of nutraceuticals. • Immunomodulatory properties of stressed plant bioactives play a key role against chronic diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]