The growing global demand for minimally processed fresh foods has driven the development of innovative food processing methods. High-pressure processing (HPP), a leading non-thermal technique, has proven to be environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and versatile across various food types. Its ability to extend shelf life and ensure microbial safety is well established, particularly in dairy products. However, further research is needed to fully understand HPP’s impact on improving the digestion of milk compounds and assessing potential safety risks. Recent studies, for example, demonstrate HPP’s efficacy in enhancing the microbial safety and nutritional value of products like cheese, yogurt, and whey protein isolate. This review explores these advancements and highlights HPP’s role in improving the physicochemical, organoleptic, and functional properties of milk and dairy products.

Plants use a variety of physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms to mitigate salt stress impacts. Many techniques, including the application of nanoparticles (NPs), are being used to increase plant stress tolerance. To assess the growth and productivity of Vigna unguiculata L. (cowpea) plants exposed to salt stress, cowpea has been cultivated using different saline water levels and subjected to green synthesized zinc NPs (ZnNPs) and iron NPs (FeNPs) applied via foliar spraying. The cowpea plants that grew under the lowest saline water level showed the best leaf traits, leaf water content per area (LWCA), pods, and seed yields, but when salinity levels increased, the plants’ growth and productivity slightly declined. ZnNP and FeNP treatments slow down the degradation of photosynthetic pigments and greatly mitigate the negative effects of salt stress. In both stressed and unstressed plants, ZnNP treatments produced the highest osmoprotectant concentrations (proline, protein, and total carbohydrates). As a result of salt stress, cowpea seeds showed a marked decrease in dry matter and protein content, but ZnNP and FeNP treatments increased it. Conclusively, the results obtained indicated that ZnNPs and FeNPs foliar application to cowpea plants stimulated leaf pigment and polyphenol production, which in turn increased seed dry matter, seed yield, protein content, and the plants’ ability to withstand saline stress.

Liver fibrosis is a condition characterized by the excessive buildup of scar tissue in the liver. This scarring occurs as a result of chronic liver damage, often caused by conditions such as hepatitis, alcohol abuse, certain metabolic disorders, genetic abnormalities, autoimmunity, and noninfectious diseases such as fatty liver which leads to liver fibrosis. Nanoparticles have gained attention in recent years as potential therapeutic agents for liver fibrosis. They offer unique advantages due to their small size, large surface area, and ability to carry drugs or target specific cells or tissues. Studies have suggested that nanoemulsions may enhance drug delivery systems, enabling targeted drug delivery to specific sites in the liver and improving therapeutic outcomes. In this study, we explore the protective and therapeutic values with phytochemical profiling of the used agro-wastes decaffeinated palm date seeds (Phoenix dactylifera L., PSC) coffee and caffeinated Arabic coffee seeds (Coffea arabica L.; ACS). Both ACS and PSC extracts were converted into nanoemulsion (NE) forms using the oleic acid/Tween 80 system, which was recruited for the purpose of treating a rat model with liver fibrosis. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) were used to record the sizes, morphologies, hydrodynamic diameters, and ζ-potentials of the prepared NE-ACSE and NE-PSCE. Accordingly, the NE-ACSE and NE-PSCE imaged via TEM and their ζ-potentials were recorded at 20.7, 23.3 nm and −41.4, −28.0 mV, respectively. The antioxidant properties were determined with a DPPH scavenging assay. The synthesized NE-PSCE and NE-ACSE were employed to treat a rat model with CCl₄-induced liver fibrosis, to estimate the role of each emulsion-based extract in the treatment of liver fibrosis through recording inflammatory parameters, liver functions, antioxidant enzymes, and histopathological analysis results. The nanoemulsion forms of both ACSE and PSCE provided significant increases in antioxidant enzymes, reducing inflammatory parameters, compared to other groups, where liver functions were decreased with values close to those of the control group. In conclusion, both nanoemulsions, ACSE and PSCE, provided a new avenue as therapeutic approaches for liver diseases, and further studies are encouraged to obtain maximum efficiency of treatment via the combination of both extracts.

Moringa oleifera is a tree with various applications. Desertification and salinity are major constraints to crop productivity worldwide, especially in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, it is essential that plants alleviate and adapt to salt stress. Many physiological, pharmacological, and molecular strategies are employed by plants to lessen the effects of salinity stress. In this work, plants were grown under different salinity levels and treated with a foliar spray of seaweed extract to evaluate the fixed oil using GC/MS analysis, free proline and total soluble proteins using colorimetric methods, total phenolic content using Folin–Ciocalteu phenol reagent, total flavonoids using a spectrophotometric method, and antioxidant activity using the DPPH method. The study has shown that applying seaweed extract to plants grown under different salinity conditions improves seed oil yield, proline levels, soluble proteins, phenolic content, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity. As salinity increases, the oil yield decreases, but the levels of proline, phenols, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity rise. Seaweed extract application also reduces protein breakdown and boosts osmoprotectants. Salt stress decreases unsaturated fatty acids like oleic acid and increases saturated fatty acids like stearic acid. Overall, seaweed extract helps mitigate the adverse effects of salinity, enhancing oil yield and stress resistance in moringa trees.

Sprouts are an attractive food product that contains high amounts of nutritional substances and has pro-health features. Sprout consumption has strongly increased despite its potential risk to health due to its microbial load. Both the safety and shelf life of sprouts may be negatively affected by a high microbial load. To reduce the microbial contamination in sprouts before consumption, the initial microbial load on the seeds needs to be controlled. Many herbal sprouts have been recommended for diabetes, and fenugreek is one of these sprouts. Thus, the current experiment aimed at disinfecting fenugreek seeds using microwave (5, 10, and 20 s) and hot water (30, 45, and 60 s) treatments for different durations. The best-disinfected sprouts with the highest nutritional properties were used to evaluate their influence on streptozocin-induced diabetic rats in comparison with fenugreek seed feeding. Microwave treatments showed the highest sprout length, fresh weight, total free amino acids, antioxidants, reducing sugars, and total phenols. Additionally, microwave seed treatments showed the lowest bacteria and mold counts on sprouts produced relative to hot water treatments, and the best seed treatment was a microwave for 20 s, which gave the best values in this respect. Feeding diabetic rats with different fenugreek seeds or sprout rates (0, 5, 7.5, and 10% w/w) improved body weight, restricted the growth of glucose levels, lowered total cholesterol and triglycerides, and improved HDL compared with the positive control group, and fenugreek sprouts at higher rates showed the maximum improvements in blood glucose, total cholesterol, and triglycerides. Treating fenugreek seed with microwave radiation for 20 s to disinfect the seeds before sprouting is recommended for lowering the microbial load with optimum nutritional and antioxidant activity, and feeding diabetic rats with these sprouts at the rate of 7.5 and 10% had promising effects on hyperglycemia and associated disorders.