Squalene (SQ) is a natural compound, a precursor of various hormones in animals and sterols in plants. It is considered a molecule with pharmacological, cosmetic, and nutritional potential. Scientific research has shown that SQ reduces skin damage by UV radiation, LDL levels, and cholesterol in the blood, prevents the suffering of cardiovascular diseases, and has antitumor and anticancer effects against ovarian, breast, lung, and colon cancer. The inclusion of SQ in the human diet is recommended without causing health risks; however, its intake is low due to the lack of natural sources of SQ and efficient extraction methods which limit its commercialization. Biotechnological advances have developed synthetic techniques to produce SQ; nevertheless, yields achieved are not sufficient for global demand for industrial or food supplement purposes. The effect on the human body is one of the scientific issues still to be addressed; few research studies have been developed with SQ from seed or vegetable sources to use it in the food sector even though squalene was discovered more than half a century ago. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of SQ to establish research focus with special reference to plant sources, extraction methods, and uses.

Legumes in combination with other products are the staple food for a large part of the world population, especially the low-income fragment, because their seeds provide valuable amounts of carbohydrates, fiber, and proteins, and have an important composition of essential amino acids, the sulphured amino acids being the limiting ones. Furthermore, legumes also have nonnutritional compounds that may decrease the absorption of nutrients or produce toxic effects; however, it has been reported that depending on the dose, these nonnutritional compounds also have different bioactivities as antioxidant, hypolipidemic, hypoglycemic, and anticarcinogenic agents, which have been proven in scientific studies. It has been observed that in countries with a high consumption of legumes, the incidence of colorectal cancer is lower. Some studies have shown that legume seeds are an alternative chemopreventive therapy against various cancers especially colon; this was verified in various animal models of induced by azoxymethane, a colon specific carcinogenic compound, in which a diet was supplemented with different concentrations of beans, lentils, chickpeas, or soybeans, mostly. These studies have proven the anticancer activity of legumes in early stages of carcinogenesis. Therefore, it is important to review the information available to elucidate the chemopreventive mechanisms of action of legume compounds.

The phenolic composition (by HPLC-DAD-MS) and color characteristics (by Imaging Tristimulus Colorimetry) of four strawberry cultivars that have shown good climate adaptation to subtropical area (Nikte, Zamorana, Jacona and Pakal) have been assessed. 24 monomeric phenolics were identified, including 15 anthocyanins, 5 phenolic acids, 1 flavanol and 4 flavonols. Nikte and Zamorana showed the highest phenolic potential mainly due to their higher content of anthocyanins, while Pakal was richer in phenolic acids. Regarding color, Nikte and Zamorana were the more similar cultivars having the lowest values of lightness and hue. On the contrary, the color of Pakal was quite different from all the rest, due to the specific distribution between pelargonidin and cyanidin. The inclusion of both phenolic and colorimetric information in the Linear Discriminant Analysis allowed reaching very good discriminations among cultivars.