Novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) emerged in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China causing severe respiratory infections and resulting in millions admissions to hospital and over a million deaths worldwide. Authorities imposed protective measures including confinement to flatten curves of casualties resulted in sudden lifestyle and eating habit changes. The objectives of this study were to observe the impact of the COVID‐19 lockdown on eating behavior and lifestyle of the Kurdish population in Iraqi Kurdistan. A structured cross‐sectional study was conducted from 1st to 14th of June when the lockdown finished with three different sections. Section one (6 questions) included socio‐demographic information section two (11 questions) composed of dietary behavior information including a) Mediterranean diet (MD) adherence using 14‐scaled items with a MD screener tool ranging from 0 to 14 b) and sections three (12 questions) composed of lifestyle habit changes such as physical activity, sleeping behavior, and smoking habit. The total number of included respondents was 2,137. The results showed that 12.0% (256) of participants stated that their lifestyle was improved, whereas 50.9% (1,087) declared their lifestyle deteriorated. In particular, the frequency of physical activity was decreased (McNemar value = 60.53, p <.001) and sleeping hours were significantly increased during lockdown (McNemar value = 447.93, p <.001). Regarding eating habits, it was noticed that 29.3% and 14.3% felt that appetite increased and decreased, respectively. The appetite change during lockdown was significantly associated with age (p =.0001), gender (p =.001), city (p =.007), and BMI (p =.001). Similarly, 32.4% reported weight gain. In conclusion, this study is among the earliest studies showing the effect of COVID‐19 on eating behavior and lifestyle changes. COVID‐19 confinement had a significant effect on lifestyle particularly reducing physical activity and changing eating habits.

Food by‐products happen at various stages of production and processing at home and on commercial scales. In the recent years, because of the fast‐growing food companies and production, food processing by‐products have gained a lot of interest and attracted many technical and health professionals as well as policy makers internally and internationally. Also, concerns are increasing about food by‐products due to their ecological and environmental impact on the planet. This is particularly of concern when large companies emit. Large quantities of food by‐products are thrown into environment in which they can be exploited technically, medicinally, and pharmaceutically. This is due to their chemical component and biologically active compounds of the by‐products. Therefore, this systematic review focuses on the food by‐product biological compounds present in different parts of the food products, particularly in some common foods such as fruits, vegetables, cereals, dairy products, meat, eggs, nuts, coffee, and tea. Moreover, the review also explains the kind of biologically active compounds and their quantity not just in edible foods, but also in part and types of the by‐product which then can be reused and recycled into different processes in order to extract and get benefit from.

The genus Onosma belongs to the Boraginaceae family and contains over 230 species. The present review sheds light on the ethnopharmacology, phytoconstituents, bioactivity, and toxicology of the Onosma species from previous investigations. Furthermore, the paper also highlights the unresolved issues for the future investigations. The review included previous studies of the genus Onosma available from Google Scholar and Baidu Scholar, Science Direct, SciFinder, Wiley Online Library, and Web of Science. Until now, more than 200 chemical compounds have been detected from the genus Onosma, including naphthoquinone (33), flavonoids (30), hydrocarbon (23), phenolic (22), ester (17), alkaloids (20), aromatics (12), carboxylic acid (11), fatty acids (9), terpenoids (10), while the most important ones are rosmarinic, ferulic, protocatechuic, chlorogenic, caffeic, p-coumaric acids, and apigenin. The Onosma species are reported as traditional medicine for wound healing, heart disease, and kidney disorders, while the pharmacological investigations revealed that the extracts and the phytochemicals of Onosma species have different therapeutic properties including antioxidant, enzyme inhibitory, antitumor, hepatoprotective, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial actions. The summarized knowledge in this review provides valuable ideas for the current and future drug discovery and a motivation for further investigation on the genus Onosma.

The prevalence of gastric ulcers has increased in recent years, mainly because of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug utilization. Therefore, the current study investigates the gastroprotective effect of p-Cymene on absolute ethanol-induced acute gastric mucosal hemorrhagic lesions in rats. Thirty Sprague Dawley rats were randomly separated into five groups: normal control, ulcer control, reference, and two experimental groups. The normal and ulcer control groups were orally fed with 0.5% carboxymethylcellulose (CMC). The reference group was fed orally with 20 mg/kg omeprazole. The experimental groups were fed with 30 mg/kg and 60 mg/kg p-Cymene, respectively. After one hour, the normal group was fed with 0.5% CMC, and groups 2–5 were given absolute alcohol. After another hour all rats were sacrificed. The ulcer control group showed severe superficial hemorrhagic gastric mucosal lesions with decreased gastric mucus secretion and pH of gastric content. p-Cymene significantly reduced ethanol-induced gastric lesions, as evidenced by increased mucus and pH of gastric content, decreased ulcer area, reduced or absence of edema, and leucocyte infiltration of the subcutaneous layer. In gastric mucosal homogenate, p-Cymene displayed a significant increase in superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) activities, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and significantly reduced the malondialdehyde (MDA) level. In addition, p-Cymene increased the intensity of periodic acid–Schiff (PAS) stain of the gastric epithelium, and produced up-regulation of the HSP 70 protein and down-regulation of the Bax protein of the stomach epithelium, as well as a reduction in the levels of tumor necrotic factor-alpha and interleukin-6, while the level of interleukin-10 was increased. p-Cymene decreased the level of TNF-a and IL-6, and increased the level of IL-10. Acute toxicity with a higher dose of 500 mg/kg p-Cymene did not manifest any toxicological signs in rats and could enhance defensive mechanisms against gastric mucosal lesions. p-Cymene showed gastroprotective effects that could be attributed to its antioxidant nature, or its ability to increase mucus secretion, increase endogenous enzymes (SOD, CAT, PGE2), reduce MDA level, up-regulate HSP 70 protein, down-regulate Bax protein, and modulate inflammatory cytokines.

The Papaver L. plant (Papaver decaisnei) has ethnobotanical records in many countries including Iraqi Kurdistan. The current study investigates the methanol (99.9) extracts (10μg/mL) of roots, leaves, and flowers of Papaver decaisnei in terms of phytochemistry by gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry GC-MS, in vitro antioxidant activity by radical scavenging and reducing power assays, and finally, the anticancer actions as IC₅₀ (inhibitory concentration at 50) against human colorectal adenocarcinoma (Caco-2), mammary cancer cells (MCF-7), and human cervical carcinoma (HeLa) cells. The results showed 22, 19, and 17 chemicals for roots, leaves, and flowers of P. decaisnei, respectively. The prevalent organic compounds of P. decaisnei were alkaloids (62.03), phenolics (55.43), fatty acids (42.51), esters (32.08), terpenoids (25.59), and phytosterols (15.68), namely, roemerine (70.44), 9,12,15-octadecatrien-1-ol (37.45), hexadecanoic acid (33.72), decarbomethoxytabersonine (24.49), and γ-sitosterol (11.22). The antioxidant activity of plant organs was within 39.1143.5μg/mL for DPPH, 135.4276.4μg/mL for ABTS, 12.434.3μg/mL for FRAP, and 42.675.8μg/mL for CUPRAC assays. The anticancer of P. decaisnei was found as 125.3388.4μg/mL against all tested cell lines (Caco-2, MCF-7, and HeLa). The detected alkaloids and bioactivity of P. decaisnei encourage future isolation of those remarkable alkaloids (reomerine) for potential usage in the pharmaceutical industry.

The formulation of a novel functional juice, enriched with wheat germ powder and spirulina algae and based on cantaloupe and pear juice, was optimized by D‐optimal combined design. Firstly, sensory evaluation was performed by hedonic test to evaluate the organoleptic properties, and organoleptically desirable samples were screened for further experiments. Various chemical experiments including PH, acidity, formalin index, total phenol, flavonoids, antioxidant capacity, mineral contents (Fe, Zn, Ca, P, K, Mg, and Cu), and fatty acids profile were evaluated. The steady shear flow rheological test also was performed on the screened samples. The results of sensory evaluation showed that the samples containing 1% spirulina and wheat germ had the highest organoleptic score. The results of physicochemical tests on the selected samples showed that the addition of spirulina and wheat germ powder had little effect on pH, acidity, and formalin index but they affected brix, dry matter, and protein content. Also, the addition of spirulina and wheat germ powder, changed the amounts of antioxidant capacity (from 90 to 98%), total phenol (from 4 to 22 mg GAE/g), and flavonoid content (from 5 to 15 mg/L) in the functional beverages. Furthermore, the results of rheological tests showed that the addition of wheat germ powder in the functional fruit juices increased apparent viscosity however; spirulina did not affect important change in rheological properties. The GC‐Mass analysis presented fatty acid profiles of the functional beverages and confirmed the presence of polyunsaturated fatty acids (for example decanoic acid and heptadecanoic acid) in the samples.