A short review

Elicitation is a good strategy to induce physiological changes and stimulate defense or stress-induced responses in plants. The elicitor treatments trigger the synthesis of phytochemical compounds in fruits, vegetables and herbs. These metabolites have been widely investigated as bioactive compounds responsible of plant cell adaptation to the environment, specific organoleptic properties of foods, and protective effects in human cells against oxidative processes in the development of neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer. Biotic (biological origin), abiotic (chemical or physical origin) elicitors and phytohormones have been applied alone or in combinations, in hydroponic solutions or sprays, and in different selected time points of the plant growth or during post-harvest. Understanding how plant tissues and their specific secondary metabolic pathways respond to specific treatments with elicitors would be the basis for designing protocols to enhance the production of secondary metabolites, in order to produce quality and healthy fresh foods.

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Elicitation: A Tool for Enriching the Bioactive Composition of Foods

This collection of articles is a timely contribution to issues relating to the food industry. The objective of this book is to provide knowledge appropriate for students, university researchers, and in general, for anyone wishing to obtain knowledge of food processing and to improve the food product quality. Due to the increase in world population (more than seven billion inhabitants) the global food industry has the largest number of demanding and knowledgeable consumers. This population requires food products that fulfill the high quality standards established by the food industry organizations. Food shortages threaten human health, and also the disastrous extreme climatic events make food shortages even worse

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Valorisation of Cheese Whey, a By-Product from the Dairy Industry

Are organic consumers preferring or avoiding foods with nutrition and health claims

Modern affluent societies encounter the challenge of the so-called obesity pandemic in terms of health, and the environmental strain of resource intensive production and consumption in terms of sustainability. Consumer's role and the consumption side of the supply chain have been identified to be crucial in improving healthy choices and achieving sustainability goals, and both issues are increasingly discussed alongside each other. Arguments for why pursuing health and sustainability goals might entail challenges are presented, as well as arguments for why it might allow for synergies. It is concluded that understanding and acknowledging these interrelations can improve actions for tackling one of the issues alone, and even more so actions to advance both jointly.

Consumer perception and trends about health and sustainability: trade-offs and synergies of two pivotal issues

A direct relationship between foods and health has led to various scientific studies to find the significance of foods or food ingredients on specific functions in the body. The term functional food refers to food with specific beneficial functions, is first coined in Japan. The present paper reviews the factors that have driven the functional food development, various definitions proposed by different authors and their classification. It also provides an overview on various functional ingredients in different food sources along with their potential health benefits, state of the art in commodity-based development and research on functional foods, the key factors required for their mass popularity, including some highlights on the increase in the global market share for such products. Mentions have also been made on the fact that framed rules for proving health claims of functional foods by conducting longitudinal studies before launching in the market are still lacking in many countries.

Functional foods: An overview

Barley flaxseed based functional dry soup mix (BFSM) was developed from whole barely flour (46.296%), roasted flaxseed powder (23.148%) and the seasoning (30.555%) comprising several flavoring compounds and anticaking agent, using simple processing technique. Developed BFSM was nutritious. On dry matter basis it contained: protein (14.31%), carbohydrate excluding crude fiber (54.70%), fat (8.70%), ash (17.45%) and crude fiber (4.84%). It was low glycemic soup, free of antinutritional risk and had calorific value of 319.77 kcal/100 g (wet or sample basis, sb) estimated from its composition. 100 g (sb) of BFSM contained 4.36 g β-glucans and 8.08 g total lipid of which 25.6% was ω-3 fatty acids. Different extracts of BFSM revealed the presence of total phenols (0.57–1.86 mg gallic acid equivalent/g, sb) with antioxidants equivalence of DPPH (20.69–39.07%) and FRAP (120–331 μm Fe (II)/g, sb).

Nutritional and functional characterization of barley flaxseed based functional dry soup mix

HDAC6: A unique HDAC family member as a cancer target

Production wise, barley is the fourth among the major cereal crops in the world. The grain is mainly exploited as feed or as raw material for malt production, with only a small fraction, about three percent of the total produce currently being used for human food purpose. Widespread use of maize, wheat, and rice as main food grains has presently relegated barley to the underutilized status. Poor baking quality and grey/dark color development on cooking, probably, have discouraged the use of barley in human food. However, composition wise, barley contains starch as the main carbohydrate, low fat, protein of moderate quality, minerals, vitamins, especially vitamin E (tocopherols and tocotrienols) and other antioxidants, mainly polyphenolics, and insoluble and soluble dietary fiber, i.e., β-glucans, chemically (1-3,1-4)-β-D-glucans. Recent researches have claimed, because of β-glucans, consumption of barley in food offers several health benefits to alleviate the problems of life style disorder. These include control of blood cholesterol and glucose level, and induction of satiety effect required to control body weight. Barley’s potential as a prebiotic has increased significantly as β-glucans promote the growth of beneficial intestinal microorganisms. Besides these, tocotrienols as antioxidants have been the focus of growing research interest for their hypocholesterolemic action. Additionally, tocotrienols may affect the growth and/or proliferation of several types of human cancer cells. To utilize the impressive health benefits, incorporation of barley in food may be advocated through improved technology to overcome the so called undesirable effects. However, in line with the increasing health consciousness, several whole grain products are now getting popularized with sacrifice of desirable colors. It is appreciated that through sustained research and development, barley, currently underutilized, will be considered as a prized food for good nutrition and health in near future.

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Status of Barley as a Dietary Component for Human

Rheological behavior of cooked whole barley flour suspension (5–7 g/100 mL) was studied using Brookfield Digital Viscometer at four rpm (10, 20, 50 and 100), and for five temperatures (30, 35, 40, 45 and 50C). The suspension behaved as a shear-thinning fluid and the power law model could satisfactorily describe the relationship between shear rate and shear stress with flow behavior index in the range of 0.49–0.74. The consistency coefficient was in the range of 0.20–2.08 Pa·sn and it varied inversely with temperature following Arrhenius equation, while a power law model was suitable for its direct relationship with concentration.



Practical Applications

Barley is gaining importance in human food because of the presence of β-glucans having beneficial effects on health. The study embodied in the present work gives the idea of viscosity of whole barley flour suspension for different concentrations, temperatures and shear rates. Information on these parameters and a model relating them are important attributes required in preparation, quality control and equipment design for barley-based soups.

Sumeet Kaur

Papers

Functional foods: An overview

Nutritional and functional characterization of barley flaxseed based functional dry soup mix

HDAC6: A unique HDAC family member as a cancer target

Status of Barley as a Dietary Component for Human

Study on the Effect of Concentration and Temperature on Rheological Properties of Whole Barley Flour Suspension by Using Mitschka Method