| Summary: | Nutraceuticals are capable of providing health benefits beyond basic nutrition and are used in the medicinal form. This product category has played a pivotal role in health promotion, being associated with a reduced incidence of metabolic syndrome conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancers, and cardiovascular ailments. Typically, bioactive compounds serve as the foundational elements of nutraceutical development due to their ability to positively modulate human physiology. Among the widely explored bioactive classes, phenolic compounds stand out as a heterogeneous group with several subclassifications and varying degrees of complexity. Recognized as potent free radical scavengers, their antioxidant mechanisms allow these molecules to mitigate oxidative stress and protect vital biomolecules, including lipids (e.g., LDL-cholesterol) and nucleic acids (e.g., DNA). Phenolic compounds can also form complexes with proteins, granting them the ability to inhibit metabolic enzymes such as a-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase, which are highly active in people living with type 2 diabetes and obesity, respectively. Due to their potential impact on human health, novel phenolic sources have been procured for the development of nutraceuticals and functional food ingredients. Phenolics are abundant in plant material and are part of food linked with health promotion, including fruits and vegetables, cereals and grains, legumes, nuts, herbs and spices. Among phenolic-rich fruits, several types remain unexplored and could hold great potential for commercialization if their nutraceutical potential is confirmed. Examples include tropical fruits like guava, butiá, and jerivá, as well as sea buckthorn, a berry recently introduced to some locations in North America, including Newfoundland. Besides the edible portions of these fruits, their by-products (e.g., seeds, skins) could also serve as sources of phenolic compounds, opening new possibilities for the upcycling of these usually discarded fractions. In this ...
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