Inflammation represents a very frequent condition in humans; it is often underestimated, making the problem an increasingly alarming phenomenon. For these reasons, conventional therapies are losing...

Inflammation represents an adaptive response generated by injuries or harmful stimuli. Natural remedies represent an interesting alternative to traditional therapies, involving several biochemical pathways. Besides, the valorization of agrochemical wastes nowadays seems to be a feasible way to reduce the health spending and improve the accessibility at bioactive natural compounds. In this context, the chemical composition of three Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (licorice) leaf extracts, obtained through maceration or ultrasound-assisted method (fresh and dried leaves) was investigated. A guided fractionation obtained three main components: pinocembrin, glabranin and licoflavanone. All the extracts showed similar antioxidant properties, evaluated by 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) or 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) Diammonium Salt (ABTS) assay, while, among the isolated compounds, licoflavanone exhibited the best antioxidant activity. The anti-inflammatory activity of the extracts and the purified compounds was investigated in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 murine macrophages. Extract C and licoflavanone showed a good anti-inflammatory activity without affecting cell viability, as they decreased nitrite levels even when used at 12.5 μg/mL (p < 0.005) and 50 μM concentration (p < 0.001), respectively. Interestingly, licoflavanone markedly decreased pro-inflammatory cytokines and cyclooxygenase 2/inducible nitric oxide synthase (COX-2/iNOS) expression levels (p < 0.001). A modulation of nuclear factor kappa B/mitogen-activated protein kinases (NF-kB/MAPK) pathway underlay such behavior, highlighting the potential of this natural compound as a new scaffold in anti-inflammatory drug research.

Giving a glance to the report of Wound Care Market by Product updated in 2017, we can see that wound care market is expected to reach USD 22.01 billion by 2022 from USD 18.35 billion at a CAGR of 3.7%. Numerous factors are driving the growth of this market, including the increasing prevalence of chronic wounds and acute wounds, increasing aged population, rising R&D activities and advancement in the field of wound care research. Advanced wound management products are accounted for the largest market share in 2017. These evidences mean that the wound care research represents a Clinical Emergency other than an interesting Marketing tool. Drug therapies so far fight efficaciously with the opportunistic pathologies derived from chronic wounds, although an unsolved challenge is still finding a useful remedy to correct the impaired wound healing process and overcome the chronic wound state, to avoid bacterial rising and severe pain. Traditional medicinal plants have been widely used in the management of wounds and different plant extracts have been evaluated for their wound healing properties through both in vitro and in vivo studies. Their phytochemical components in particular quercetin, contribute to their remedial properties in wound repair. Quercetin has important biological activities related to the improvement of the wound healing process. The present review discusses and focuses on the latest findings of the wound healing properties of quercetin, alone or as a part of plant extract, and its role as a new frontier in wound repair.

An increase in the number of novel fortified kefir-based beverages was observed in the last decades. Vegetables were often proposed as convenient resources of bioactive molecules able to improve nutraceutical benefits of these drinks and/or to confer them new significant features. These findings have been well accepted by the consumers, which generally reserve an important role to the quality of the assumed food and beverages. Specifically, functional fermented milk-based drinks enriched with vegetable extracts display significant biological properties, due to the presence of bioactive compounds exhibiting antimicrobial and antioxidant features. In addition, agro-industrial wastes have been also proposed as innovative resources of secondary metabolites to enrich kefir-based products. Eco-friendly extraction techniques were generally exploited to achieve the isolation of biomolecules and reducing, at the same time, economic and environmental loads. To this regard, this review deeply investigates the main findings to improve kefir bioactive properties by functional enrichment with plant and agro-food waste extracts. The nutraceutical characteristics related to the consumers’ health benefits, as well as their effects on the sensorial, chemical, and microbiological properties of the products were evaluated.