Application of Infrared Spectroscopy for Functional Compounds Evaluation in Olive Oil: A Current Snapshot

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Abstract

Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from the fruit of Olea europaea, a plant belonging to the Oleaceae family, which is widely cultivated and diffused in the Mediterranean area. It is largely produced and used since antiquity. It is mainly used and consumed as food but also as key ingredient in a wide variety of cosmetic products, e.g., to moisturize and nourish dry skin. In the last few decades, olive oil has received much attention as compared to the other seed-obtained oils as well as to the animal fats due to many functional compounds with positive effects on health. To maintain the genuine picture of olive oil, it is essential to assure its authenticity and quality. The presence of bioactive compounds, which characterize the olive oil owing to their antioxidant properties, can be assessed by spectroscopic and chromatographic methods. Currently, spectroscopic techniques combined with chemometric data analysis represent one of the most promising detection methods in the food sector. They offer rapid, versatile, and inexpensive data collection and analyses. The main advantages include the limited and simple sample preparation and the possibility to get spectra directly from the production line. Infrared spectroscopy (mid- and near-infrared) coupled to chemometrics is considered as powerful, fast, accurate, and nondestructive analytical tool for rapid and precise determination of the bioactive compounds content, as well of their bioactivities, i.e., antioxidant properties. These techniques represent a valid alternative to the existing conventional methods of analysis, e.g., based on chromatography and mass spectrometry. Indeed, the present review focuses on the application of infrared spectroscopy for functional compounds evaluation in olive oil.

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Nutraceuticals: opening the debate for a regulatory framework

Antonello Santini, Silvia Miriam Cammarata, Giacomo Capone … (2018)

Currently, nutraceuticals do not have a specific definition distinct from those of other food‐derived categories, such as food supplements, herbal products, pre‐ and probiotics, functional foods, and fortified foods. Many studies have led to an understanding of the potential mechanisms of action of pharmaceutically active components contained in food that may improve health and reduce the risk of pathological conditions while enhancing overall well‐being. Nevertheless, there is a lack of clear information and, often, the claimed health benefits may not be properly substantiated by safety and efficacy information or in vitro and in vivo data, which can induce false expectations and miss the target for a product to be effective, as claimed. An officially shared and accepted definition of nutraceuticals is still missing, as nutraceuticals are mostly referred to as pharma‐foods, a powerful toolbox to be used beyond the diet but before the drugs to prevent and treat pathological conditions, such as in subjects who may not yet be eligible for conventional pharmaceutical therapy. Hence, it is of utmost importance to have a proper and unequivocal definition of nutraceuticals and shared regulations. It also seems wise to assess the safety, mechanism of action and efficacy of nutraceuticals with clinical data. A growing demand exists for nutraceuticals, which seem to reside in the grey area between pharmaceuticals and food. Nonetheless, given specific legislation from different countries, nutraceuticals are experiencing challenges with safety and health claim substantiation.

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Nutraceuticals: A paradigm of proactive medicine.

Antonello Santini, Ettore Novellino, Gian Carlo Tenore (2017)

Nutraceuticals define a new category which shades the frontier between drugs and food. As per its definition, a nutraceutical is "a food or part of a food that provides benefits health in addition to its nutritional content". Active substances either way extracted from plants (phytocomplexes) or of animal origin, when extracted, concentrated and administered in a suitable pharmaceutical form, can create a very promising toolbox useful to prevent and/or support the therapy of some pathologic conditions given their proven clinical efficacy. It is worldwide recognized that diet and lifestyle are essential to promote and maintain well-being and nice-being condition, other than help to prevent diseases possible onset. Both non-correct dietary habits and lifestyle can in fact determine pathological conditions. The metabolic syndrome, a worldwide epidemic threat, can be named an outstanding example. This syndrome is characterized by a cascade of cardio metabolic risk factors which include obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Prevention is the key strategy for an effective proactive medicine, in which efforts are addressed to prevention and, consequently, to lower the risk connected to some lifestyle related diseases reducing, at the same time, any National Health Systems cost needed to guarantee the proper therapeutic approach based on pharmaceuticals. Nutraceuticals use in prevention is a proactive reverse approach tool to pre-clinical health conditions. They can be effectively used, by including in the daily diet, in an area which shades in the range "beyond the diet, before drugs", since they combine both nutritional and beneficial healthy properties of food extracts with the healing properties of natural active compounds.