Thermal processing and Maillard reaction (MR) affect the nutritional and sensorial qualities of milk. In this paper an olive mill wastewater phenolic powder (OMW) was tested as a functional ingredient for inhibiting MR development in ultrahigh-temperature (UHT)-treated milk. OMW was added to milk at 0.1 and 0.05% w/v before UHT treatment, and the concentration of MR products was monitored to verify the effect of OMW phenols in controlling the MR. Results revealed that OMW is able to trap the reactive carbonyl species such as hydroxycarbonyls and dicarbonyls, which in turn led to the increase of Maillard-derived off-flavor development. The effect of OMW on the formation of Amadori products and N-ε-(carboxymethyl)-lysine (CML) showed that oxidative cleavage, C2-C6 cyclization, and the consequent reactive carbonyl species formation were also inhibited by OMW. Data indicated that OMW is a functional ingredient able to control the MR and to improve the nutritional and sensorial attributes of milk.

Plant extracts are rich in bioactive compounds, such as polyphenols, sesquiterpenes, and triterpenes, which potentially have antiviral activities. As a consequence of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, thousands of scientists have been working tirelessly trying to understand the biology of this new virus and the disease pathophysiology, with the main goal of discovering effective preventive treatments and therapeutic agents. Plant-derived secondary metabolites may play key roles in preventing and counteracting the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 infections by inhibiting the activity of several viral proteins, in particular those involved in the virus entry into the host cells and its replication. Using in vitro approaches, we investigated the role of a pomegranate peel extract (PPE) in attenuating the interaction between the SARS-CoV-2 Spike glycoprotein and the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor, and on the activity of the virus 3CL protease. Although further studies will be determinant to assess the efficacy of this extract in vivo, our results opened new promising opportunities to employ natural extracts for the development of effective and innovative therapies in the fight against SARS-CoV-2.

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Obesity is an urgent social problem and new functional foods providing polyphenols and dietary fibers (DF) may be promising tools to modulate oxidative stress, inflammation and energy homeostasis. Pomegranate peels (PPe) are an agro-industrial by-product containing polyphenols such as ellagitannins (ETs), gallic acid (GA), ellagic acid (EA) and its derivatives (EAs), as well as DF. In this study, PPe enriched cookies (PPeC) were developed, and the bioaccessibility as well as the ability of their polyphenols to exert antioxidant activity along the Gastro-intestinal Tract (GiT) and to modulate digestive enzymes were evaluated in vitro. Data showed that the potential bioaccessibility of ETs was 40% lower from PPeC than PPe whereas EAs' and GA bioaccessibility increased by 93% and 52% for PPeC compared to PPe. The concentration of the polyphenols at each digestion step was associated with the total antioxidant capacity of the potentially bioaccessible material. Moreover the polyphenols released in the simulated duodenal phase upon PPeC digestion exhibited inhibitory activity towards α-glucosidase, α-amylase and lipase, being α-glucosidase > α-amylase > lipase. In conclusion, the data demonstrated that the inclusion of PPe at 7.5% in a bakery product potentially led to a high bioaccessibility of ETs' degradation products (mainly EA and EAs) in the duodenum, with a consequent antioxidant protection along the GiT and modulation of glucose metabolism. Further human studies are warranted to evaluate whether these effects also occur in vivo.

Plant extracts are rich in bioactive compounds, such as polyphenols, sesquiterpenes and triterpenes, with potential antiviral activities. As the dramatic outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, thousands of scientists are working tirelessly trying to understand the biology of this new virus and the disease pathophysiology, with the main goal to discover effective preventive treatments and therapeutic agents. Plant-derived secondary metabolites may play key roles in preventing and counteracting the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 infections by inhibiting the activity of several viral proteins, in particular those involved in the virus entry into the host cells and its replication. In this study, by using different in vitro approaches, we uncovered the role of a pomegranate peel extract in attenuating the interaction between the SARS-CoV-2 Spike glycoprotein and the human Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, and in inhibiting the activity of the virus 3CL protease. Although further studies will be determinant to assess the efficacy of this extract in vivo, our results open up new promising opportunities to employ natural extracts for the development of effective and innovative therapies in the fight against SARS-CoV-2.

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The optimization of pretreatments and filtration parameters can lead to the industrial scale-up of microfiltration technology for the development of high-quality non-heat-treated PJ. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

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