Biological activities and potential cosmeceutical applications of bioactive components from brown seaweeds: a review

Seaweeds are the primary producers of all aquatic ecosystems. Chemical constituents isolated from diverse classes of seaweeds exert a wide range of nutritional, functional and biological activities. Unique metabolites of seaweeds possess specific biological properties that make them potential ingredients of many industrial applications such as functional foods, pharmaceuticals and cosmeceuticals. Cosmeceuticals of natural origin are becoming more popular than synthetic cosmetics. Hence, the investigation of new seaweeds derived functional components, a different source of natural products, has proven to be a promising area of cosmeceutical studies. Brown seaweeds also produce a range of active components including unique secondary metabolites such as phlorotannins and many of which have specific biological activities that give possibilities for their economic utilization. Brown seaweeds derived active compounds have been shown various functional properties including, antioxidant, antiwrinkling, whitening, antiinflammatory and antiallergy. It is well-known that these kind of biological effects are closely associated with cosmeceutical preparations. This communication reviews the current knowledge on brown seaweeds derived metabolites with various biological activities and the potential use as cosmeceutical ingredients. It is hoped that the reviewed literature on multifunctional properties of brown seaweeds will improve access to the seaweed based natural products specially the ability to incorporate these functional properties in cosmeceutical applications.     

Peptides as Active Ingredients: A Challenge for Cosmeceutical Industry

Cosmeceutical field, which merges cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, is nowadays a highly investigated research area, because a scientific demonstration of the claimed bioactivity of new cosmeceutical ingredients is increasingly requested. In fact, an aspect differentiating traditional cosmetics from cosmeceuticals is the identification and characterization of the active ingredients and demonstrating its efficacy in the claimed activity. An interesting group of bioactive cosmeceutical ingredients are peptides, which due to their particular properties, meets most of the requirements presented by the cosmeceutical industry when composing new formulas. In this context, beside bioactivity, two additional aspects have been recently considered, when dealing with peptides as cosmeceutical ingredients: bioavailability and stability. We describe herein novel methods applied in order to enhance peptides skin-penetration and stability, reviewing both scientific articles and patents, issued in the cosmeceutical arena.     

桑黄类真菌多糖研究进展

桑黄是一类珍稀药用真菌的统称,多糖作为其主要的有效成分之一,具有抑肿瘤、抗氧化、抑菌、消炎、免疫调节等多种药理功效.本文就桑黄多糖的提取分离纯化、结构解析和药用价值等方面的研究进展进行了综述,旨在为深入研究其药理功效并开发成为天然食品、保健品或药品提供重要参考.     

Prospective of the cosmeceuticals derived from marine organisms

Cosmeceuticals, derived from the words ‘cosmetic and pharmaceutical’, have drug-like benefits and contain active ingredients such as vitamins, phytochemicals, enzymes, antioxidants, and essential oils. Cosmeceuticals have attracted increased attention because of their beneficial effects on human health. Bioactive substances derived from marine organisms have diverse functional roles as a secondary metabolite and these properties can be applied to the developments of novel pharmaceuticals and cosmeceuticals. Recently, extensive studies have been conducted on the general aspects of the chemical structures, physical and biochemical properties, and biotechnological applications of bioactive substances derived from marine organisms. In this review, we have discussed recent progresses in the biotechnological applications of bioactive substances from marine organisms as cosmeceuticals.     

The potential of microalgae and their biopolymers as structuring ingredients in food: A review

Microalgae are considered promising functional food ingredients due to their balanced composition, containing multiple nutritional and health-beneficial components. However, their functionality in food products is not limited to health aspects, since microalgae can also play a structuring role in food, for instance as a texturizing ingredient. Photoautotrophic microalgae are actually rich in structural biopolymers such as proteins, storage polysaccharides, and cell wall related polysaccharides, and their presence might possibly alter the rheological properties of the enriched food product. A first approach to benefit from these structural biopolymers consists of isolating the cell wall related polysaccharides for use as food hydrocolloids. The potential of extracted cell wall polysaccharides as food hydrocolloids has only been shown for a few microalgae species, mainly due to an enormous diversity in molecular structure and composition. Nevertheless, with intrinsic viscosities comparable or higher than those of commercial thickening agents, extracellular polysaccharides of red microalgae and cyanobacteria could be a promising source of novel food hydrocolloids. A more sustainable approach would be to incorporate the whole microalgal biomass into food products, to combine health benefits with potential structuring benefits, i.e. providing desired rheological properties of the enriched food product. If microalgal biomass would act as a thickening agent, this would actually reduce the need for additional texturizing ingredients. Even though only limitedly studied so far, food processing operations have been proven successful in establishing desired microstructural and rheological properties. In fact, the use of cell disruption techniques allows the release of intracellular compounds, which become available to create strong particle aggregates resulting in an improved viscosity and network structure. Food processing operations might not only be favorable in terms of rheological properties, but also for enhancing the bioaccessibility of several bioactive compounds. However, this research area is only very scarcely explored, and there is a demand for more standardized research studies to draw conclusions on the effect of processing on the nutritional quality of food products enriched with microalgae. Even though considered as promising food ingredients, some major scientific challenges have been pointed out throughout this review paper for the successful design of microalgal based food products.     

Yeast cells for encapsulation of bioactive compounds in food products: A review

Nowadays bioactive compounds have gained great attention in food and drug industries owing to their health aspects as well as antimicrobial and antioxidant attributes. Nevertheless, their bioavailability, bioactivity, and stability can be affected in different conditions and during storage. In addition, some bioactive compounds have undesirable flavor that restrict their application especially at high dosage in food products. Therefore, food industry needs to find novel techniques to overcome these problems. Microencapsulation is a technique, which can fulfill the mentioned requirements. Also, there are many wall materials for use in encapsulation procedure such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and various kinds of polymers. The utilization of food-grade and safe carriers have attracted great interest for encapsulation of food ingredients. Yeast cells are known as a novel carrier for microencapsulation of bioactive compounds with benefits such as controlled release, protection of core substances without a significant effect on sensory properties of food products. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was abundantly used as a suitable carrier for food ingredients. Whole cells as well as cell particles like cell wall and plasma membrane can act as a wall material in encapsulation process. Compared to other wall materials, yeast cells are biodegradable, have better protection for bioactive compounds and the process of microencapsulation by them is relatively simple. The encapsulation efficiency can be improved by applying some pretreatments of yeast cells. In this article, the potential application of yeast cells as an encapsulating material for encapsulation of bioactive compounds is reviewed.     

Herbal Extracts as Potential Antioxidant,Anti-Aging,Anti-Inflammatory,and Whitening Cosmeceutical Ingredients

The aim of this research was to investigate and compare the antioxidant, anti-tyrosinase, anti-aging, and anti-inflammatory activities of 16 herbal extracts for topical application in cosmetic/cosmeceutical products. Herbal plant materials were extracted by infusion in boiled water for 15 min. The total phenolic content and total flavonoid content of each extract were investigated by the Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminum chloride methods, respectively. Antioxidant activities were investigated using 2,2’-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and a ferric reducing antioxidant power assay. Anti-tyrosinase and anti-aging activities were investigated using an in vitro enzymatic-spectrophotometric method. Anti-inflammatory activities were investigated using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The findings show that the Stevia rebaudiana extract has the most significant levels of both phenols and flavonoids (p<0.05). The S. rebaudiana, Rosa damascene, and Phyllanthus emblica extracts possessed the most significant antioxidant activities (p<0.05) and a promising whitening effect with moderate anti-tyrosinase activities. Furthermore, the Echinacea purpurea extract possessed the most significant anti-collagenase (78.5±0.0 %), anti-elastase (69.0±1.4 %), and anti-hyaluronidase activity (64.2±0.3 %). The Morus alba extract possessed the most significant anti-inflammatory activity since it could inhibit the secretion of interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α (p<0.05). Therefore, these herbal extracts have promising skin benefits and have potential for use as active ingredients in cosmetic/cosmeceutical products.     

Macroalgae (seaweeds): industrial resources and their utilization

Summary Seaweeds are distributed widely in all oceans of the world, but exploited in limited areas. These plants have been used for food and as soil conditioners for centuries, with industrial application of extractives a relatively recent innovation generally limited to the more developed areas of the world. There are relatively few species of industrial importance, and these occur in both the red (Rhodophyta) and brown (Phaeophyta) algal divisions.The principal value of phycocolloids is in their gelling and stabilizing properties. Species of red algae may elaborate agar or carrageenan. Both are complex polysaccharides with innumerable structural possibilities, hence physical properties, and phycocolloids from various species can have specific applications. Carrageenans are employed mostly in the food industry, and agars in both the food and pharmaceutical sectors of the economy. Alginates, another family of complex polysaccharides, are obtained from various species of brown algae and are the third major algal gum of commerce. Alginates are used in the food and pharmaceutical industries and have other industrial applications.Issued as NRCC No. 23603.     

An array of possibilities for pectin

Pectins are a major component of plant cell walls and have numerous roles in plant growth and development. Extracted pectins are widely used as functional food ingredients in products including ice creams, jams, jellies and milk drinks. Although all are based on a galacturonan-rich backbone, pectins are an immensely diverse family of polysaccharides, the functional properties of which are dictated by their fine structures. Understanding the biological roles of pectins and optimizing their industrial usage requires a detailed knowledge of their diversity and spatial and temporal distributions, and microarray technology is a promising tool for high throughput pectin analysis. This article discusses the technical aspects of the production of pectin microarrays and explores their current and potential future uses in the context of recent work in the field.     

Pectin structure and biosynthesis

Pectin is structurally and functionally the most complex polysaccharide in plant cell walls. Pectin has functions in plant growth, morphology, development, and plant defense and also serves as a gelling and stabilizing polymer in diverse food and specialty products and has positive effects on human health and multiple biomedical uses. Pectin is a family of galacturonic acid-rich polysaccharides including homogalacturonan, rhamnogalacturonan I, and the substituted galacturonans rhamnogalacturonan II (RG-II) and xylogalacturonan (XGA). Pectin biosynthesis is estimated to require at least 67 transferases including glycosyl-, methyl-, and acetyltransferases. New developments in understanding pectin structure, function, and biosynthesis indicate that these polysaccharides have roles in both primary and secondary cell walls. Manipulation of pectin synthesis is expected to impact diverse plant agronomical properties including plant biomass characteristics important for biofuel production.     

Use of natural products in the crop protection industry

Nature is a rich source of compounds exhibiting biological activity against weeds, plant diseases, insects and mites. Many of these natural products have complex structures, insufficient biological activity and low persistence under field conditions. Thus the share of natural products being used as active ingredients per se in today’s crop protection market is relatively small. In some cases the natural products have been further modified to provide semi-synthetic derivatives with improved biological properties. More importantly, natural products served as lead structures inspiring chemists to prepare new synthetic analogues with often improved biological activity, simplified structures, increased safety towards humans and the environment and an optimized persistence. This article is not an extensive review of natural products in crop protection, but it discusses some examples illustrating the use of natural products per se, their use as starting materials to prepare semi-synthetic products, and their use as lead structures to prepare new synthetic products which may in the end bear no resemblance to the initial lead.     

Trends and challenges in phytotherapy and phytocosmetics for skin aging

Oxidative stress and inflammation mostly contribute to aging and age-related conditions including skin aging. The potential of natural products in the form of naturally-derived cosmetics, cosmeceuticals, and nutricosmetics have, however, not been fully harnessed. This review, thus, critically analyzes the potential roles of natural products in inflammation-related skin aging diseases due to the increasing consumers’ concerns and demands for efficacious, safe, natural, sustainable, and religiously permitted alternatives to synthetic products. The information and data were collated from various resources and literature databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Wiley, Springer, Taylor and Francis, Scopus, Inflibnet, Google, and Google Scholar using relevant keywords and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). The role of green extraction solvents as promising alternatives is also elucidated. The potential enhancements of the bioavailability, stability, solubility and controlled release profile of the bioactives using different delivery systems are also presented. The current potential global market value, motivators, drivers, trends, challenges, halal, and other regulatory certifications for cosmeceuticals and nutricosmetics are equally discussed. The adoption of the suggested extractions and delivery systems would enhance the stability, bioavailability, and target delivery of the bioactives.     

Current microalgal health food R & D activities in China

The major microalgal genera presently cultivated in China are Spirulina and Chlorella. They are initially manufactured in the form of algal biomass or extracts by the food industry. The biomass is then used for producing a variety of health products such as tablets, capsules, powder or for extracting bioactive ingredients such as beta-carotene, and phycocyanin. The algal biomass is supplemented to noodles, breads, biscuits, candies, ice cream, bean curd and other common foods as food additives so as to enhance their nutritive and health values. The extracts are mainly used to enrich liquid foods such as health drink, soft drink, tea, beer or spirits.     

Nanoliposomes and their applications in food nanotechnology

Food nanotechnology involves the utilization of nanocarrier systems to stabilize the bioactive materials against a range of environmental and chemical changes as well as to improve their bioavailability. Nanoliposome technology presents exciting opportunities for food technologists in areas such as encapsulation and controlled release of food materials, as well as the enhanced bioavailability, stability, and shelf-life of sensitive ingredients. Liposomes and nanoliposomes have been used in the food industry to deliver flavors and nutrients and, more recently, have been investigated for their abilityto incorporate antimicrobials that could aid in the protection of food products against microbial contamination. In this paper, the main physicochemical properties of liposomes and nanoliposomes are described and some of the industrially applicable methods for their manufacture are reviewed. A summary of the application of nanoliposomes as carrier vehicles of nutrients, nutraceuticals, enzymes, food additives, and food antimicrobials is also presented.     

Nanoliposomes and Their Applications in Food Nanotechnology

Food nanotechnology involves the utilization of nanocarrier systems to stabilize the bioactive materials against a range of environmental and chemical changes as well as to improve their bioavailability. Nanoliposome technology presents exciting opportunities for food technologists in areas such as encapsulation and controlled release of food materials, as well as the enhanced bioavailability, stability, and shelf-life of sensitive ingredients. Liposomes and nanoliposomes have been used in the food industry to deliver flavors and nutrients and, more recently, have been investigated for their ability to incorporate antimicrobials that could aid in the protection of food products against microbial contamination. In this paper, the main physicochemical properties of liposomes and nanoliposomes are described and some of the industrially applicable methods for their manufacture are reviewed. A summary of the application of nanoliposomes as carrier vehicles of nutrients, nutraceuticals, enzymes, food additives, and food antimicrobials is also presented.     

Exopolysaccharides produced by Lactobacillus plantarum: technological properties,biological activity,and potential application in the food industry

Some lactic acid bacteria are capable of producing capsular or extracellular polysaccharides, with desirable technological properties and biological activities. Such polysaccharides produced by lactic acid bacteria are called exopolysaccharides and can be used to alter rheological properties, acting in processes involving viscosity, emulsification, and flocculation, among others. They may also be involved in prebiotic, probiotic, and biological activities, as well as having potential application in the food industry. In this mini-review, the objectives were to present some beneficial properties of exopolysaccharides (EPS) produced by Lactobacillus plantarum that have not been commercially explored. For that, the article focused to summarize revision of current publications within the following topics: (1) rheological properties, (2) prebiotic properties, (3) biological activities, and (4) potential application in the food industry. EPS produced by Lb. plantarum can be used as gelling agent, emulsifier, or stabilizer for food products. The glucan nature of the produced EPS enhances probiotic properties of this LAB species. Lactobacillus plantarum EPS has antioxidant, antibiofilm, and antitumor activities. Finally, there is an improvement in texture of fermented food products where Lb. plantarum is used as starter culture which is related to EPS production in situ. Therefore, EPS produced by Lb. plantarum have important and desirable properties to be explored for several applications, including health and food areas.     

海藻酸盐裂解酶研究进展

海藻酸盐裂解酶是一类降解褐藻中海藻酸盐的酶。此酶已经在多种有机体中得到分离。对海藻酸盐裂解酶的生物特性、研究方法及其生物学功能进行了介绍。在酶学特性研究的基础上 ,通过酶解构建新型海藻酸盐多聚物 ,可增强和扩展海藻酸盐裂解酶在工业、农业、医药领域中的应用 ,使其在海藻多糖的高值化应用中发挥重要的作用。概述了海藻酸盐和海藻酸盐裂解酶过去和现在的研究状况 ,展望了海藻酸盐和海藻酸盐裂解酶将来的应用前景。     

Recent advances in polysaccharide bio-based flocculants

Natural polysaccharides, derived from biomass feedstocks, marine resources, and microorganisms, have been attracting considerable attention as benign and environmentally friendly substitutes for synthetic polymeric products. Besides many other applications, these biopolymers are rapidly emerging as viable alternatives to harmful synthetic flocculating agents for the removal of contaminants from water and wastewater. In recent years, a great deal of effort has been devoted to improve the production and performance of polysaccharide bio-based flocculants. In this review, current trends in preparation and chemical modification of polysaccharide bio-based flocculants and their flocculation performance are discussed. Aspects including mechanisms of flocculation, biosynthesis, classification, purification and characterization, chemical modification, the effect of physicochemical factors on flocculating activity, and recent applications of polysaccharide bio-based flocculants are summarized and presented.     

Free‐Radical‐Scavenging,Antityrosinase, and Cellular Melanogenesis Inhibitory Activities of Synthetic Isoflavones

In this study, we examined the potential of synthetic isoflavones for application in cosmeceuticals. Twenty‐five isoflavones were synthesized and their capacities of free‐radical‐scavenging and mushroom tyrosinase inhibition, as well as their impact on cell viability of B16F10 murine melanoma cells and HaCaT human keratinocytes were evaluated. Isoflavones that showed significant mushroom tyrosinase inhibitory activities were further studied on reduction of cellular melanin formation and antityrosinase activities in B16F10 melanocytes in vitro. Among the isoflavones tested, 6‐hydroxydaidzein ( 2 ) was the strongest scavenger of both ABTS ^{. +} and DPPH ^. radicals with SC₅₀ values of 11.3±0.3 and 9.4±0.1 μM , respectively. Texasin ( 20 ) exhibited the most potent inhibition of mushroom tyrosinase (IC₅₀ 14.9±4.5 μM ), whereas retusin ( 17 ) showed the most efficient inhibition both of cellular melanin formation and antityrosinase activity in B16F10 melanocytes, respectively. In summary, both retusin ( 17 ) and texasin ( 20 ) exhibited potent free‐radical‐scavenging capacities as well as efficient inhibition of cellular melanogenesis, suggesting that they are valuable hit compounds with potential for advanced cosmeceutical development.