Plant-Based Functional Foods and Phytochemicals: From Traditional Knowledge to Present Innovation

Plant-Based Functional Foods and Phytochemicals: From Traditional Knowledge to Present Innovation covers the importance of the therapeutic health benefits of phytochemicals derived from plants. It discusses the isolation of potential bioactive molecules from plant sources along with their value to human health. It focuses on physical characteristics, uniqueness, uses, distribution, traditional and nutritional importance, bioactivities, and future trends of different plant-based foods and food products. Functional foods, beyond providing basic nutrition, may offer a potentially positive effect on health and cures for various disease conditions, such as metabolic disorders (including diabetes), cancer, and chronic inflammatory reactions. The volume looks at these natural products and their bioactive compounds that are increasingly utilized in preventive and therapeutic medications and in the production of pharmaceutical supplements and as food additives to increase functionality. It also describes the concept of extraction of bioactive molecules from plant sources, both conventional and modern extraction techniques, available sources, biochemistry, structural composition, and potential biological activities.

About the Author

Megh R. Goyal, PhD, PE, is a Retired Professor in Agricultural and Biomedical Engineering from the General Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico–Mayaguez Campus. He has worked as a Soil Conservation Inspector and as a Research Assistant at Haryana Agricultural University and Ohio State University. During his professional career of over 52 years, he has received many prestigious awards, including being named as the “Father of Irrigation Engineering in Puerto Rico for the twentieth century” by the ASABE, Puerto Rico Section. A prolific author and editor, he has written more than 200 journal articles and several textbooks and has edited over 75 books.

Arijit Nath, PhD, is a Visiting Research and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Food Science, Szent István University, Budapest, Hungary. Dr. Nath has held a variety of positions at such places as the Department of Food Engineering at Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary; Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering at Technical University of Dortmund, Germany; Department of Refrigeration and Livestock Products Technology at Szent István University, Hungary; and Soós Ernő Water Technology Research and Development Centre at University of Pannonia, Hungary. He has published research and review articles in international journals and book chapters.

Hafiz Ansar Rasul Suleria, PhD, is the McKenzie Fellow at the School of Agriculture and Food in the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Science, The University of Melbourne, Australia. He was formerly the Alfred Deakin Research Fellow at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia. Dr. Suleria has published more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers in professional journals and has co-edited several books. He is also in collaboration with more than ten universities where he is working as a co-supervisor/special member for PhD and postgraduate students.