There is increased interest in following a healthy lifestyle and consuming a substantial portion of secondary plant metabolites, such as polyphenols, due to their benefits for the human body. Food products enriched with various forms of fruits and vegetables are sources of pro-health components. Nevertheless, in many cases, the level of their activities is changed in in vivo conditions. The changes are strictly connected with processes in the digestive system that transfigure the structure of the active compounds and simultaneously keep or modify their biological activities. Much attention has focused on their bioavailability, a prerequisite for further physiological functions. As human studies are time consuming, costly and restricted by ethical concerns, in vitro models for investigating the effects of digestion on these compounds have been developed to predict their release from the food matrix, as well as their bioaccessibility. Most typically, models simulate digestion in the oral cavity, the stomach, the small intestine and, occasionally, the large intestine. The presented review aims to discuss the impact of in vitro digestion on the composition, bioaccessibility and antioxidant activity of food polyphenols. Additionally, we consider the influence of pH on antioxidant changes in the aforementioned substances.

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Terpenes are a widespread group of secondary metabolites that can be found in various family plants such as the Lamiaceae. In view of their numerous valuable biological activities, the industrial production of concrete terpenes and essential oils rich in the substances is intensively studied. Monoterpenes constitute a significant part of the whole group of the aforementioned secondary metabolites. This is due to their numerous biological activities and their ability to permeate the skin. Despite the fact that these substances have gain popularity, they are not comprehensively characterized. The presented review is based on studies of the biological activities of the most important monoterpenes and the essential oils rich in these compounds. The authors focused attention on antioxidant activity, inhibition towards acetyl-and butyrylcholinesterase, and α-amylase and α-glucosidase, antifungal, hepatoprotective, sedative properties, and their skin permeation enhancement.

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is by far the most prevalent of all known forms of dementia. Despite wide-spread research, the main causes of emergence and development of AD have not been fully recognized. Natural, low-molecular, lipophilic terpenoids constitute an interesting group of secondary plant metabolites, that exert biological activities of possible use in the prevention and treatment of AD. In order to identify secondary metabolites possessing both antioxidant activity and the potential to increase the level of acetylcholine, selected terpenoids have been screened for possible acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity by use of two methods, namely Marston (chromatographic assay) and Ellman (spectrophotometric assay). In order to describe the interaction between terpenes and AChE active gorge, molecular docking simulations were performed. Additionally, all analyzed terpenes were also evaluated for their cytotoxic properties against two normal cell lines using MTT assay. The obtained results show that: carvone (6), pulegone (8) and γ-terpinene (7) possess desirable AChE inhibitory activity. MTT assay revealed low or lack of cytotoxicity of these metabolites. Thus, among the investigated terpenes, carvone (6), pulegone (8) and γ-terpinene (7) can be recognized as compounds with most promising activities in the development of multitarget directed ligands.

Obesity is a common serious health problem leading to many serious health disorders. This phenomenon is defined as the over-storage of lipids in adipose tissue that occurs when there is an imbalance between the energy intake and energy used. During obesity, many metabolic alterations occur that can damage several organs, such as vascular or skeletal muscle resulting in the dysfunction of these tissues. In this review, we will discuss molecular genetics and causes of obesity, some of the disorders related to human obesity as well as anti-obesity tool. An interesting solution to the obesity problem is natural substances, revealing anti-obesity activity, as well as functional food enriched with aforementioned substances. Functional foods are products exhibiting a potentially positive effect on health beyond basic nutrition. They contain well-known biologically active natural compounds, which promote optimal health and reduce the risk of many diseases, including obesity.