Background: Weight management and obesity prevention is a basic aim of health organizations in order to decrease the prevalence of various metabolic disorders. The aim of the present review article was the evaluation of the possible role of functional foods and their bioactive compounds as alternative way to promote weight management and prevent obesity and its metabolic consequences. Methods: Approximately 100 articles were selected from Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science Direct, by using relative key words, and based mainly on recent animal, clinical or epidemiological studies. Results: The literature review highlighted the possible effect of specific functional foods such as coffee, green tea, berries, nuts, olive oil, pomegranate, avocado, and ginger. Specific bioactive compounds of those foods—such as caffeine, catechins, gallic acid, anthocyanins, ascorbic acid, polyphenols, oleuropein, capsaicin, and quercetin—may contribute to weight management, obesity prevention, and obesity’s metabolic consequences. The possible mechanisms include effect on satiety, lipid absorption, fatty acids beta oxidation, stimulation of thermogenesis, etc. Conclusions: Functional foods, as part of a balanced diet, could be useful in the direction of weight management and decrease of obesity’s’ metabolic consequences. However, the scientific evidence is unclear and in most cases controversial and more clinical and epidemiological studies are needed in order to further investigate the mechanisms of their possible effect.

Malnutrition is a common finding in cancer patients, which can affect disease progression and survival. This review aims to critically summarize the prognostic role of nutritional status, from Body Mass Index (BMI) and weight loss to nutrition screening tools and biochemical indices, in cancer patients. According to the currently available data, Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) was a significant prognostic factor of patients' survival, both in univariate and multivariate analyses. Pre-operative albumin was also correlated with worse outcomes, being an independent prognostic factor of survival in several studies. BMI was also well-studied, with contradictory results. Although, lower BMI was found to be an independent prognostic factor of shorter survival in some studies, in others it did not have an impact on survival. In this aspect, this review highlights the significant prognostic role of nutritional status in the disease progression and survival of cancer patients. Further, good-quality prospective studies are needed in order to draw precise conclusions on the prognostic role of specific nutritional assessment tools, and biochemical indices associated with the nutritional status in more cancer types, such as liver, breast and prostate cancer, and hematological malignancies.

In the last two decades, plant taxonomy has bloomed, following the development of a novel technique, namely, DNA barcoding. DNA barcodes are standardized sequences, ideally unique, coding or non-coding, either from the genome of the organism or from its organelles, that are used to identify/classify an organismal group; in short, the method includes amplification of the DNA barcode, sequencing and comparison with a reference database containing the relevant sequences from different species. In plants, the use a universal DNA barcode, such as COI, which is used in animals, has not been achieved so far. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the progress made in DNA barcoding within the field of plant taxonomy. It highlights the success of various barcode loci, the emergence of super barcodes from the chloroplast genome, and the overall impact of next-generation sequencing technologies on the field. The discussion of different approaches reflects the ongoing efforts to refine and optimize DNA barcoding techniques for plants, contributing to the advancement in our understanding of plant biodiversity.

In recent decades, there has been growing interest in the fortification of dairy products with antioxidants and phenolics derived from plant byproducts and herbs. The present study focused on the analysis of dairy products, including kefir, cream cheese, yogurt, and vegan yogurt, enhanced with aqueous extracts of plant byproducts (Citrus aurantium peel, Citrus limon peel and Rosa canina seed) and herbs (Sideritis spp., Hypericum perforatum, Origanum dictamnus, Mentha pulegium L., Melissa oficinallis, Mentha spicata L. and Lavandula angustifolia) to characterize their antioxidant content, phenolic profile, and organoleptic characteristics. Antioxidant and phenolic content were determined by Folin–Ciocalteu and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays and presented values up to 46.61 ± 7.22 mmol Fe²⁺/L and 82.97 ± 4.29 mg gallic acid (GAE)/g, respectively for the aqueous extracts, as well as up to 0.68 ± 0.06 mmol Fe²⁺/L and 2.82 ± 0.36 mg GAE/g for the fortified dairy products. The bioavailability of antioxidants and phenolics in fortified foods was determined after in vitro digestion and ranged between 4 and 68%. The phytochemical profile of the aqueous extracts was determined by mass spectrometry, and 162 phytochemicals were determined, from which 128 belong to the polyphenol family including flavonoids and phenolic acids. Furthermore, most of the identified compounds have been recorded to possess enhanced antioxidant capacity in correlation to the in vitro findings. Finally, organoleptic evaluation showed an overall acceptability around 3.0 ± 1.0 on a 5-point scale. In conclusion, the studied plants and herbal extracts can be used for the fortification of a variety of dairy products with potential positive effects on human health.

Owning to the increase in the world population as well as the consumer’s awareness on the health benefits of consumption of fruits, the demand for both fresh and processed fruits has been increased. The by-product and waste streams generated from fruit processing industries are extremely diverse, owning mainly to different fruits varieties and the wide range of the processes employed towards the production of the end fruit-based products. Due to the increasing production and processing of fruits, disposal of waste and by-product streams has become a serious issue, since these materials are prone to microbial spoilage. Also, the inappropriate waste management practices pose severe environmental issues. Furthermore, the costs of drying and storage of fruit processing residues are economically limiting factors hindering their further exploitation. Therefore, fruit processing by-products such as peels, seeds and unused flesh are often utilized as fertilizers. On the other hand, plant residues contain biomolecules such as vitamins, proteins, minerals, antioxidants and aromatic oil. Recovery of bioactive compounds holds a great potential for their usage in food industry as functional ingredients and nutraceuticals or in pharmaceutical and in cosmetic applications. So, valorization of plant fruit processing by-products to high-value added compounds, constitute a promising alternative not only for addressing fruit residues management issues but also leading to the production of functional food products of high nutritional value, with several potential beneficial health effects. The aim of this paper is to highlight current trends in addressing environmental issues caused by the production of high volumes of specific categories of fruit processing waste streams by investigating their potential usage as natural raw materials for the recovery of valuable bioactive compounds (such as polyphenols, dietary fibers or aromatic oil). The extracted nutrients may be used in the industrial food sector for the production of functional foods, nutraceuticals or even as health promoting natural pharmaceutical ingredients or additives for the production of innovative enriched foods. Highlights: • Fruit processing by product streams are rich in bioactive compounds. • Integration of fruit by-products and waste streams to value added products such as additives, unconventional oil, bioactive compounds and novel functional products is a very interesting approach regarding fruit processing residues exploitation. • Recovering of biomolecules from fruit residues by non-thermal processes could lead to the efficient production of highly purified functional ingredients. • Negative-valued fruit processing residues could be recycled for the production of health promoting value added products.