Medicinal plants are traditionally used in folk medicine as natural healing remedies with therapeutic effects such as prevention of cardiovascular diseases, inflammation disorders, or reducing the risk of cancer. In addition, pharmacological industry utilizes medicinal plants due to the presence of active chemical substances as agents for drug synthesis. They are valuable also for food and cosmetic industry as additives, due to their preservative effects because of the presence of antioxidants and antimicrobial constituents. To commonly used medicinal plants with antioxidant activity known worldwide belong plants from several families, especially Lamiaceae (rosemary, sage, oregano, marjoram, basil, thyme, mints, balm), Apiaceae (cumin, fennel, caraway), and Zingiberaceae (turmeric, ginger). The antioxidant properties of medicinal plants depend on the plant, its variety, environmental conditions, climatic and seasonal variations, geographical regions of growth, degree of ripeness, growing practices, and many other factors such as postharvest treatment and processing. In addition, composition and concentration of present antioxidants, such as phenolic compounds, are related to antioxidant effect. For appropriate determination of antioxidant capacity, the extraction technique, its conditions, solvent used, and particular assay methodology are important.
- MeSH
- antioxidancia chemie izolace a purifikace zásobování a distribuce terapeutické užití MeSH
- fortifikované potraviny * MeSH
- kardiovaskulární nemoci prevence a kontrola MeSH
- léčivé rostliny chemie MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- nádory prevence a kontrola MeSH
- potravinářské konzervační látky chemie izolace a purifikace zásobování a distribuce MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- přehledy MeSH
- Názvy látek
- antioxidancia MeSH
- potravinářské konzervační látky MeSH
The interest in functional food, both freshwater and marine algal products with their possible promotional health effects, increases also in regions where algae are considered as rather exotic food. Increased attention about algae as an abundant source of many nutrients and dietary fiber from the nutrition point of view, as well as from the scientific approaches to explore new nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals, is based on the presence of many bioactive compounds including polysaccharides extracted from algal matter. Diverse chemical composition of dietary fiber polysaccharides is responsible for their different physicochemical properties, such as their ability to be fermented by the human colonic microbiota resulted in health benefit effects. Fundamental seaweed polysaccharides are presented by alginates, agars, carrageenans, ulvanes, and fucoidans, which are widely used in the food and pharmaceutical industry and also in other branches of industry. Moreover, freshwater algae and seaweed polysaccharides have emerged as an important source of bioactive natural compounds which are responsible for their possible physiological effects. Especially, sulfate polysaccharides exhibit immunomodulatory, antitumor, antithrombotic, anticoagulant, anti-mutagenic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antiviral activities including anti-HIV infection, herpes, and hepatitis viruses. Generally, biological activity of sulfate polysaccharides is related to their different composition and mainly to the extent of the sulfation of their molecules. Significant attention has been recently focused on the use of both freshwater algae and seaweed for developing functional food by reason of a great variety of nutrients that are essential for human health.
- MeSH
- celosvětové zdraví MeSH
- Chlorophyta chemie růst a vývoj MeSH
- dieta škodlivé účinky etnologie MeSH
- funkční potraviny škodlivé účinky analýza MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mořské řasy chemie MeSH
- Phaeophyceae chemie růst a vývoj MeSH
- polysacharidy škodlivé účinky analýza chemie metabolismus MeSH
- potravní vláknina škodlivé účinky analýza metabolismus MeSH
- Rhodophyta chemie růst a vývoj MeSH
- sinice chemie růst a vývoj MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- přehledy MeSH
- Názvy látek
- polysacharidy MeSH
- potravní vláknina MeSH
Seaweeds demonstrate original and interesting nutritional characteristics. Protein concentration ranges from 5% to 47% of dry basic. Its value depends particularly on species and the environmental conditions. Seaweed protein is a source of all amino acids, especially glycine, alanine, arginine, proline, glutamic, and aspartic acids. In algae, essential amino acids (EAAs) represent almost a half of total amino acids and their protein profile is close to the profile of egg protein. In case of non-EAAs, all three groups (green, brown, and red seaweeds) contain the similar amount. Red seaweed seems to be a good source of protein because its value reaches 47%. The issue of protein malnutrition supports the trend to find a new and cheap alternative source of protein. Algae could play an important role in the above-mentioned challenge because of relatively high content of nitrogen compounds. Algae may be used in the industry as a source of ingredients with high nutritional quality.
- MeSH
- aminokyseliny chemie MeSH
- analýza potravin * MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mořské řasy chemie MeSH
- nutriční hodnota MeSH
- potravní doplňky analýza MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- přehledy MeSH
- Názvy látek
- aminokyseliny MeSH
Seaweeds are a good source of some water- (B(1), B(2), B(12), C) and fat-soluble (β-carotene with vitamin A activity, vitamin E) vitamins. To ensure that the adequate intake of all vitamins is received in the diet, people (especially people on special diet, 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 (β-carotene), or reducing the risk of cancer (vitamins E and C, carotenoids).
- MeSH
- fyziologie výživy MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mořské řasy chemie MeSH
- potravní doplňky analýza MeSH
- vitaminy chemie farmakologie MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- přehledy MeSH
- Názvy látek
- vitaminy MeSH
Seaweeds are known as low-energy food. Despite low lipid content, ω-3 and ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) introduce a significant part of seaweed lipids. PUFAs are the important components of all cell membranes and precursors of eicosanoids that are essential bioregulators of many cellular processes. PUFAs effectively reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, ostheoporosis, and diabetes. Because of the frequent usage of seaweeds in Asia and their increasing utilization as food also in other parts of the world, seaweeds could contribute to the improvement of a low level of ω-3 PUFAs, especially in the Western diet. The major commercial sources of ω-3 PUFAs are fish, but their wide usage as food additives is limited for the typical fishy smell, unpleasant taste, and oxidative nonstability. Nevertheless, growing requirements of healthy functional foods have led to produce PUFAs as nutraceuticals in controlled batch culture of marine microalgae, especially Thraustochytrium and Schizochytrium strains.
- MeSH
- fyziologie výživy MeSH
- kyseliny mastné omega-3 chemie farmakologie MeSH
- kyseliny mastné omega-6 chemie farmakologie MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mořské řasy chemie MeSH
- potravní doplňky analýza MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- přehledy MeSH
- Názvy látek
- kyseliny mastné omega-3 MeSH
- kyseliny mastné omega-6 MeSH
Seaweed is known as an abundant source of minerals. Mineral composition of seaweed is very changeable because of many exogenous and endogenous factors and differs also within the same species. Principally, seaweed is an excellent source of some essential elements. Mainly, iron and iodine are in high concentration. Seaweeds could be prospective as functional foods and also producers of mineral nutraceuticals.
- MeSH
- biologická dostupnost MeSH
- fyziologie výživy MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- minerály chemie farmakokinetika farmakologie MeSH
- mořské řasy chemie MeSH
- potravní doplňky analýza MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- přehledy MeSH
- Názvy látek
- minerály MeSH
