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The need to add value to cultivated and native plant products that have medicinal and nutritional properties is increasing due to the consumers demand. Nowadays, the bioactive compounds (phytochemicals) found in plants have many uses in the therapeutic, pharmaceutical, and food industries. Dried Roselle calyces (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) are commercially available and appreciated to obtain concentrated extracts which might be used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. It has been shown that ingestion of infusions of Roselle may help to reduce chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. This could be due to the activity of some compounds, mainly flavonoids and anthocyanins, found as natural antioxidants in Roselle extracts. Numerous researchers have pointed out that Roselle and its extracts possess functional properties from where advances can be taken for developing new products with additional nutritious characteristics that may provide health benefits to consumers. Food products from Roselle are known as functional foods, which may provide health benefits to consumers because of its significant contribution of phytochemicals. In this sense, one of the main challenges that companies face todays is the development of new value-added products to meet the consumer's demands. This article presents a review of the most relevant aspects of Roselle as well as its health benefits and its application in the food and beverage areas.

Absolute threshold and just noticeable difference (JND) were determined for the perception of pungency using chili pepper in aqueous solutions. Absolute threshold and JND were determined using 2 alternative forced-choice sensory tests tests. High-performance liquid chromatography technique was used to determine capsaicinoids concentration in samples used for sensory analysis. Sensory absolute threshold was 0.050 mg capsaicinoids/kg sample. Five JND values were determined using 5 reference solutions with different capsaicinoids concentration. JND values changed proportionally as capsaicinoids concentration of the reference sample solutions changed. Weber fraction remained stable for the first 4 reference capsaicinoid solutions (0.05, 0.11, 0.13, and 0.17 mg/kg) but changed when the most concentrated reference capsaicinoids solution was used (0.23 mg/kg). Quantification limit for instrumental analysis was 1.512 mg/kg capsaicinoids. Sensory methods employed in this study proved to be more sensitive than instrumental methods. Practical Application: A better understanding of the process involved in the sensory perception of pungency is currently required because "hot" foods are becoming more popular in western cuisine. Absolute thresholds and differential thresholds are useful tools in the formulation and development of new food products. These parameters may help in defining how much chili pepper is required in a formulated product to ensure a perceptible level of pungency, as well as in deciding how much more chili pepper is required in a product to produce a perceptible increase in its pungency.

High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) was applied to fresh mango nectar (FMN) and sterilized mango nectar (SMN) to inactivate Escherichia coli and pectin methylesterase (PME). Pressure was applied at 275, 345 and 414 MPa. The come-up time (CUT) as well as 1, 2 and 4 min of treatment times were applied at the selected pressure to evaluate the inactivation effect on E. coli and PME. Total plate counts (TPC) were also evaluated in FMN. Results showed that mesophiles are inactivated in FMN to an important degree (up to 4 log) only with the CUT; the highest inactivation for mesophiles (7 log) was reported at 414 MPa after 4 min. Meanwhile, for E. coli 345 and 414 MPa after 2 and 1 min, respectively, were able to inactivate all viable cells in FMN. However, in SMN after 4 min at 275 MPa all cells of E. coli were also inactivated, showing the protective effect of the media between FMN and SMN. The PME showed its resistance to be inactivated with high pressure, showing the highest decrease in enzymatic activity (45%) after 4 min at 345 MPa but with an important activation at the highest pressure (414 MPa).

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