Carotenoid functional foods

With investigations of phytochemicals and functional foods, the outcome measure is generally going to be a biomarker of disease, such as serum cholesterol level as a marker of heart disease risk, or indicators of bone turnover as markers of osteoporosis risk. Alternatively, markers of exposure may also indicate the benefit from a functional food by demonstrating bioavailability, such as increased serum levels of vitamins or carotenoids. Some components will be measurable in both ways. For instance, effects of a folic acid-fortified food could be measured via decrease in plasma homocysteine levels, or increase in red blood cell folate. 

Based upon such reports, there is an increasing view that functional foods (nutraceuticals), in which carotenoid levels are high or modified qualitatively, would be beneficial to human health, especially with respect to degenerative... 

Faulks, R.M. and Southon, S., Carotenoids, metabohsm and disease, in Handbook of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2001. 

In the Unites States, the daily intake of 3-carotene is around 2 mg/day Several epidemiological studies have reported that consumption of carotenoid-rich foods is associated with reduced risks of certain chronic diseases such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, and age-related macular degeneration. These preventive effects of carotenoids may be related to their major function as vitamin A precursors and/or their actions as antioxidants, modulators of the immune response, and inducers of gap-junction communications. Not all carotenoids exert similar protective effects against specific diseases. By reason of the potential use of carotenoids as natural food colorants and/or for their health-promoting effects, research has focused on better understanding how they are absorbed by and metabolized in the human body. 

The extraction of carotenoids from tomatoes to yield tomato seed oil, the valorization of tomato waste to obtain lycopene, and their uses in functional foods are already established. 

Carmen Socaciu was bom in Cluj-Napoca, Romania and earned a BSc in chemistry in 1976, an MSc in 1977, and a PhD in 1986 from the University Babes-Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca, an important academic centre located in the Transylvania region. Dr. Socaciu worked as a researcher in medical and cellular biochemistry for more than 10 years, and became a lecturer in 1990 and full professor in 1998 in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV) in Cluj-Napoca. She extended her academic background in pure chemistry (synthesis and instrumental analysis) to the life sciences (agrifood chemistry and cellular biochemistry). Her fields of competence are directed especially toward natural bioactive phytochemicals (carotenoids, phenolics, flavonoids), looking to advanced methods of extraction and analysis and to their in vitro actions on cellular metabolism, their effects as functional food ingredients, and their impacts on health. 

Mercadante, A. Z. 2008. Carotenoids in foods Sources and stability during processing and storage. In Food Colorants Chemical and Functional Properties, ed. C. Socaciu, pp. 213-240. Boca Raton, FL CRC Press. 

In the stomach, carotenoids are exposed to acid environments. This can lead to carotenoid isomerization, which can change carotenoid antioxidant properties, solubility, and absorption. In humans, (3-carotene absorption is reduced when the pH of the gastric fluids is below 4.5 (Tang and others 1995). Vitamin E consumption seems to reduce carotenoid absorption in animals, presumably because vitamin E and carotenoids compete for absorption (Furr and Clark 1997). Dietary sterols, such as those in sterol-supplemented functional foods, are also known to decrease carotenoid absorption. 

Although the benefits of many functional ingredients have yet to be proven, there is a possibility for new health problems to arise if the market for fortified functional foods continues to expand. Some consumers may ingest excessive amounts of certain nutritional food additives such as iron, which could lead to an increased incidence of hemachromatosis in genetically predisposed people. Fortification with specific carotenoids may competitively inhibit the bioavailability of other carotenoids, perhaps leading to adverse physiological consequences. 

Miyashita, K. and Hosokawa, M. (2008). Beneficial health effects of seaweed carotenoid, fucoxanthin. In "Marine Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods", (C. Barrow and... 

Hyphenation of Modern Extraction Techniques to LC-NMR for the Analysis of Geometrical Carotenoid Isomers in Functional Food and Biological Tissues... 

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamtwides). This is a hardy bush growing wUd in several parts of Asia and Europe and now cultivated in Europe, North America, and Japan. It is resistant to cold, drought, salt, and alkali. Different oils are available from the seeds and from the pulp/peel, but these are not always kept separate. Several health benefits are claimed for this oil, which is now available in encapsulated form and is being incorporated into functional foods. The oil is rich in sterols, carotenoids, and tocopherols. The seed oil is rich in 18 1, 18 2, and 18 3, but the berry oil contains significant levels of 16 1 (16-22%) (166-169). 

The best documented and established function of some carotenoids is their provitamin A activity, especially of P-carotene. One mole of P-carotene can theoretically be converted, by cleavage of C 15 = C 15 double bond, to yield two moles of retinal (Reaction 9.1). However, the physiological efficiency of this process appears to be only 50%. The observed average efficiency of intestinal P-carotene absorption is only two thirds of the total content. Thus, a factor of 1/6 is used to calculate the retinol equivalent (RE) from P-carotene, but only 1/12 from the other provitamin A carotenoids in food (Combs, 1992). In fruits and vegetables P-carotene content is used as a measure of the provitamin A content. 

Seaweeds are a good source of some water- (Bj, B2, B,2, C) and fat-soluble (P-carotene with vitamin A activity, vitamin E) vitamins. To ensure that the adequate intake of all vitamins is received in the diet, people (especially peopleon specialdiet, strict vegetarians, and vegans) can consume foods enriched with vitamins, for example, in the form of functional foods with vitamins as nutraceuticals, extracted from natural sources such as seaweeds. Seaweed vitamins are important not only due to their biochemical functions and antioxidant activity but also due to other health benefits such as decreasing of blood pressure (vitamin C), prevention of cardiovascular diseases (P-carotene), or reducing the risk of cancer (vitamins E and C, carotenoids). 

Tomato (Solarium lycopersicwn L.) is extensively cultivated worldwide, and its fruits have assumed the status of functional foods as a result of epidemiological evidence of reduced risks of certain types of cancers and cardiovascular diseases [180,181]. They are a reservoir of diverse antioxidant molecules, such as lycopene, ascorbic acid, vitamin E, carotenoids, flavraioids, and phenolics, and may provide a significant part of the total intake of beneficial phytochemicals, as a result of then-high consumption rates. Among carotenoids, lycopene has a strong antioxidant activity and is able to induce cell-to-ceU communications and modulate hormones, immune systems, and other metabolic pathways [182]. 

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