Encapsulation is a pivotal technique for protecting and enhancing the efficiency of sensitive natural bioactive substances, notably essential oils, vitamins, and phenolic compounds, widely used in foods and nutraceuticals. Critical considerations in selecting encapsulation agents encompass safety, release kinetics, stability, and cost-effectiveness. Yeast cells emerge as versatile carriers distinguished by their low cost, compatibility with biological systems, and eco-friendly degradation properties, accommodating both hydrophilic and hydrophobic bioactive agents. Various yeast strains, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Torulopsis lipofera, Cutaneotrichosporon curvatus, Yarrowia lipolytica, and Candida utilis, find utility in microencapsulation. Yeast cell encapsulation relies on the permeation of bioactive agents through yeast cell walls, predominantly composed of mannoproteins and polysaccharides. The encapsulation process includes passive or vacuum-infused diffusion of bioactive compounds inside yeast cells, precise droplet size control, and attractive forces to trap bioactive components within cellular structures. Yeast cells display versatility in various states, whether alive or dead, intact or plasmolyzed. In addition, the loading capacity of hydrophobic bioactives can be increased through chemical pretreatment techniques such as plasmolysis, autolysis, and enzyme hydrolysis, freeing up space within yeast cells by eliminating water-soluble components. In summary, yeast cell encapsulation presents a promising and sustainable technology with diverse applications within the food industry. Yeast cells enhance the stability and controlled release of bioactive compounds, magnifying the efficacy of natural hydrophobic bioactives like curcumin, essential oils, β-carotene, and vitamin D across various food products. This comprehensive review focuses on the encapsulation procedures, influential factors, characterization techniques, and applications, with a pronounced emphasis on hydrophobic materials.

In recent years, many societies have expressed increasing apprehension regarding the potential negative impacts of food additives, pesticides, and environmental contaminants on human health. Environmental or occupational exposure to these compounds can cause significant adverse effects on human health by causing temporary or permanent changes in the immune system. There is supporting evidence linking pesticides/food ingredients/contaminants-induced immune alterations to the prevalence of diseases associated with changes in immune responses. Hence, it is essential to comprehensively understand the key mechanisms contributing to immune dysregulation induced by these substances, including direct immunotoxicity, endocrine disruption, and antigenicity. The impact of pesticides/food ingredients and contaminants on the human body ranges from mild to severe, depending on their affinity for blood components. These compounds form complexes with blood serum proteins, influencing their metabolism, transport, absorption, and overall toxicity. Numerous studies in the literature have explored the interactions between serum proteins and various molecules, including pesticides, drugs, and food dyes. These investigations employed a range of techniques, including spectroscopy, electrochemical and chromatographic methods as well as molecular modeling and molecular dynamics simulations analyses. This recent review, spanning from 2020 to the present, has been employed to investigate the binding characteristics, mechanisms, and attributes of different food additives, pesticides, and contaminants with serum proteins by using various techniques such as steady-state fluorescence, circular dichroism and ultra-violet spectroscopies, and computational docking methods. The review provides insights into these compounds’ positions and affinities to proteins and possible effects on human health through detailed research studies.

In many areas of human life, including food, health, culture, and religion, mushrooms have had a significant impact. Most people eat mushrooms for their flavor and texture. Recently, they have gained popularity as a protein source and a drug research tool. According to the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, mushrooms are fungi that produce spongy fruiting bodies, particularly those that possess a stalk and an envelope top. Mushrooms are composed of 90% water and 10% dry material. Additionally, it has a physicochemical composition that is important for nutrition. Edible mushrooms have been shown to offer therapeutic benefits, including anti-cancer, cardiovascular, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, hypolipidemic, antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-diabetic actions. Mushrooms are a fantastic source of nourishment since they are rich in proteins, minerals, complex sugars, unsaturated fatty acids, and secondary metabolites. The composition and nutritional benefits of edible mushrooms have been carefully investigated in this review. Edible mushrooms have been used as potential therapeutic stand-ins, and bioactive components present in edible mushrooms, such as polyphenolic compounds and antioxidant activity, have also been studied. This review article may also help scientists, researchers, and medical professionals slow the advancement of some lifestyle diseases, neurological disorders, along autoimmune disorders.

Infertility is a crucial and common health issue worldwide, that affects people both physiologically and psychosocially. The condition is described as the disease of the reproductive system of either male or female or both, incapability to instate a pregnancy after one year or more than twelve months of regular unprotected sexual intercourse or six months for women aged 35 years or more. Presently, the etiology of infertility is not well understood, many genetic factors, lifestyle factors, and environmental conditions such as stress work, oxidative stress, unbalanced nutrition, and unhealthy dietary patterns have been implicated to interfere with reproductive safety in both the sex. The nutritional factors are known to be amenable to normal and healthy reproductive function in both males and females. According to many studies, increased energy intake, dietary behavioral change, and low physical activity are responsible for epidemic disorders such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity that affect reproductive health as well, and clear evidence indicates that there is a connection between inappropriate nutrition and sperm quality. Endocrinal disruption, occupational stress, and lifestyle behavior are positively linked with the pathophysiology of infecundity. Imbalance intake of both macro and micronutrients negatively affects normal reproductive function. Changes in eating behavior, and unhealthy dietary patterns such as a higher intake of food prepared with saturated and trans fats, spicy and salty foods, and a lower intake of antioxidants including fruit and vegetables are associated with reproductive life. This narrative review summarized that many studies with more consumption of fruit, vegetables, whole cereals, meat, poultry, skim milk, and seafood and less consumption of fried, spicy, salty, sugary, processed cereals and meats are linked with good sperm count.

Natural antioxidants, such as phenolic compounds, carotenoids, vitamins, and microelements, are predominant in fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices. The accretion interest of consumers in utilizing natural ingredients in food products, have accelerated the appeal for functional “natural” operations. Therefore, understanding how natural antioxidants especially nano-antioxidants, and their delivery systems when used in antioxidant polymers for food packaging are extracted from natural sources, would help prevent oxidation reactions. Given the increasing role of natural antioxidants in the daily lives of today’s communities, a continuous synthesis of relevant literature is pertinent. To supplement existing information, recent advances in nano-related natural antioxidants, their extraction methods and applications in the food industry are discussed in this current work. Insightfully positioning antioxidants within the nano-delivery systems, this current work reveals the potential nanotechnology provides in enhancing the absorption of antioxidants in human metabolic systems.

Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disorder, is the most prevalent form of dementia with an increasingly growing incidence rate worldwide. As no effective therapeutic modalities are still available for the treatment of this serious disabling condition, lifestyle modifications, especially nutritional interventions, have been shown to be important in its prevention and symptomatic alleviation. In this short perspective article, an inverse association between the intake of sunflower seeds and the mortality from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia is proposed, showing that in the countries with the highest consumption of sunflower seeds, the death rate from this neurodegenerative disorder is low. The bioactive ingredients of sunflower seeds and their possible neuroprotective mechanisms are further unraveled, highlighting the potent antioxidant, antiinflammatory and neurotrophic effects of tocopherols, unsaturated fatty acids and phytosterols. Among the latter agents, β-sitosterol might be particularly important in combating Alzheimer’s disease by enhancing the levels of nerve growth factor and thereby promoting neurite formation. If future epidemiological studies will confirm the proposed inverse association between the intake of sunflower seeds and the development of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, it is easy to include appropriate sunflower seed products in the everyday diet to protect against the pathogenesis and progression of this neurodegenerative disorder, especially in individuals with a genetic predisposition. Considering the rather long latency period before clinical manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease, nutritional approaches with specific foods might be a promising strategy for fighting against dementia.