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The purpose of this study is to address consumer’s preference of natural pigments over synthetic ones and their use in various product developments rather than using synthetic colours. A budding interest of using natural pigments has made researchers to explore several techniques for their stabilization and application in different food products.

In this review, four major natural pigments with potential health benefits have been studied. Betalins, carotenoids, anthocyanins and chlorophylls, in spite of having excellent bio-functional and therapeutic profile, are found to be unstable. Therefore, various nanoencapsulation techniques are used to increase their stability along with their therapeutic properties.

Nanoencapsulation of natural pigments improves their stability, their effect on therapeutic properties and their application in different food products. These findings could be attributed to the encapsulating material as it acts as a barrier and ushers changes in the matrix of natural pigments. Also, nanoencapsulation not only increases stability but also provides several health benefits such as anti-inflammation, anti-cancer, anti-allergic and anti-thrombotic properties.

This paper highlights the openings for the use of nanoencapsulation of natural pigments to stabilize them and use them as a potential colourant and functional ingredient in different food products. Phenols, carotenoids and antioxidant activity are the major factors that are responsible for promoting several health benefits.

Natural food colors used in food are generally perceived as additives. Therefore, many studies have been conducted to prove the health benefits and risks of using natural food colors, which play an important role in the food industry, and to identify realistic stabilization methods. This paper aims to examine the health effects of natural food colors from a pharmacological approach.

The paper searches for relevant literature using keywords such as “natural food coloring”, “stabilization” and “antioxidant effects”. For the case study area, this paper added “food science and technology” to identify methods for stabilizing natural food coloring. From this review, the authors ultimately selected 79 articles that appeared to meet the research objectives.

When using natural food coloring in food, there are concerns about stabilization. However, with the development of food science and technology, the authors have found that there are multi-layer emulsification methods that can be applied before, during and after food manufacturing, and storage standards are also important. Natural food coloring is playing a diverse role in food science.

Natural food coloring has been reported in various types of literature to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumor effects. The most common pigments are carotenoids. Considering the positive effects of natural food coloring on human health, the authors suggest future directions for the development of food science and technology and provide a perspective for changing consumer perceptions.

The inflammatory potential of diet may play a role in the regulation of low-grade chronic inflammation derived from obesity. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the dietary inflammatory index (DII) and anthropometric indicators of adiposity among Turkish adults.

The study sample consisted of 833 young adults (mean age = 23 ± 5.2 years). The inflammatory potential of the diet was evaluated with a DII. Data on dietary intake were collected by a single 24-h dietary recall, and DII was estimated from 25 dietary components. Also, the Mediterranean diet (Med-Diet) adherence screener was applied using the 14-item assessment tool.

The proinflammatory diet was statistically associated with young (p < 0.001), singles (p < 0.001), high school degree (p = 0.011), students (p < 0.001), not working or unemployed (p < 0.001), eating outside (p = 0.016) and lower adherence to a Med-Diet (p = 0.027). There was a statistically significant positive relationship between the DII score and body weight (BW), waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) (r = 0.107; p = 0.002, r = 0.092; p = 0.008, r = 0.115; p = 0.001, respectively). Besides, there was a statistically significant negative relationship between MED score and BW, WHtR and neck circumference (r = −0.101; p = 0.004, r = −0.084; p = 0.016, r = −0.175; p = 0.000, respectively).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was the first Turkish study to assess the association between the anthropometric indicators of obesity and DII or adherence to Med-Diet in young adults. Lower DII scores and higher adherence to Med-Diet are related to the better status of anthropometric indicators of adiposity.

Millets are underused crops that have the potential to withstand harsh environmental conditions. Recent research has proved immense nutritional benefits associated with millets which have increased their utilization to some extent but yet their sole potential is left to be exploited. Different millet varieties have exceptional nutritional and nutraceutical properties which can ameliorate even the deadly conditions of cancers. They have significant protein composition ranging from 10% to 12% which possess effective bioactive potential. Protein hydrolysates containing bioactive peptides have been evaluated for their therapeutic effects against a variety of diseases. This review aims to discuss the bioactive potential of different millet protein hydrolysates to encourage research for development of effective natural therapeutics.

The present article elaborates on effective studies on the therapeutic effects of millet protein hydrolysates.

Several effective millet peptides have been reported for their therapeutic effect against different diseases and their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antimicrobial and antidiabetic effects have been investigated.

This review focuses on millet bioactive peptides and their significance in treating variety of diseases. Thus, will further encourage research to explore the novel therapeutic effects of millet proteins hydrolysates which can eventually result in the development of natural and safe therapeutics.

Artificial fruit ripening is hazardous to mankind. In the recent past, artificial fruit ripening is increasing gradually due to its commercial benefits. To discriminate the type of fruit ripening involved at the vendors’ side, there is a great demand for on-sight ethylene detection in a nondestructive manner. Therefore, this study aims to deal with a comparison of various laboratory and portable methods developed so far with high-performance metrics to identify the ethylene detection at fruit ripening site.

This paper focuses on various types of technologies proposed up to date in ethylene detection, fabrication methods and signal conditioning circuits for ethylene detection in parts per million and parts per billion levels. The authors have already developed an infrared (IR) sensor to detect ethylene and also developed a lab-based setup belonging to the electrochemical sensing methods to detect ethylene for the fruit ripening application.

The authors have developed an electrochemical sensor based on multi-walled carbon nanotubes whose performance is relatively higher than the sensors that were previously reported in terms of material, sensitivity and selectivity. For identifying the best sensing technology for optimization of ethylene detection for fruit ripening discrimination process, authors have developed an IR-based ethylene sensor and also semiconducting metal-oxide ethylene sensor which are all compared with literature-based comparable parameters. This review paper mainly focuses on the potential possibilities for developing portable ethylene sensing devices for investigation applications.

The authors have elaborately discussed the new chemical and physical methods of ethylene detection and quantification from their own developed methods and also the key findings of the methods proposed by fellow researchers working on this field. The authors would like to declare that the extensive analysis carried out in this technical survey could be used for developing a cost-effective and high-performance portable ethylene sensing device for fruit ripening and discrimination applications.

The purpose of this study was to review the information on the scientific efforts and achievements in sustainable industrial textile applications of natural colourants. Then the paper suggests the ways of improving the industrial textile applications of plant-based colourants.

The literature on the chemistry, sources and extraction of plant-based natural colourants was reviewed. The reviewed information was analysed and synthesised to provide techniques for selecting sustainable extraction methods, possible sustainable textile applications of natural colourants and the challenges which hinder industrial textile applications of plant-based natural colourants. The ways of overcoming the challenges of the industrial textile applications of plant natural colourants were suggested. Lastly, the current situation of industrial application of natural dyes in textiles is presented.

Despite the scientific achievement to overcome the challenges of natural colourants for textiles, the global industrial application of natural colourants is still low. Inadequate knowledge of the dyers results into poor performance of the natural dyed textile. The natural dyed textiles are expensive due to the scarcity of raw materials for manufacturing of natural colourants. The selection of suitable extraction, application methods and type of substrate should consider the chemistry of the particular colourant. The society should be educated about the benefits of natural dyed textiles. Cultivation of colourant-bearing plants should be promoted to meet the industrial material demand.

The paper provides a synthesized collection of information about the source, chemistry, extraction, textile application and challenges of plant-based natural colourants. The reviewed information was analysed and synthesised to provide techniques for selecting sustainable extraction methods, possible sustainable textile applications of natural colourants and the challenges which hinder industrial textile applications of plant-based natural colourants. The ways of overcoming the challenges of the industrial textile applications of plant natural colourants were suggested.

Palm oil is widely used in the food industry; however, there are two main controversies connected to its use, namely, its nutritional value and the environmental consequences deriving from its crop. In Italy, the use of palm oil has recently been criticized, insomuch that some important bakery companies decided to substitute it, creating a real food marketing case. Through a focus on biscuits, this study is aimed at profiling consumers with regard to palm oil issue to better comprehend if the presence of this ingredient truly influences their food purchases and if they care about the nutritional and environmental aspects, highlighting the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumers' consumption.

A questionnaire was administered to 243 subjects in Italy, in order to apply a cluster analysis.

The findings show the presence of three main kinds of consumers: (1) compromise finders (sensitive to cost savings but trying to privilege palm-oil free food), (2) brand-loyal consumers (palm oil does not influence their preferences) and (3) healthsensitives (the presence of palm oil profoundly affects their choices), who represent the majority of our sample. The results and implications are discussed.

Research on palm oil is essentially focused on chemistry, natural sciences or on its industrial uses: this study analyzes the consumer point of view by applying a different methodology compared to existing studies.

The purpose of this paper is to review phytochemical potential of acacia and its associated health advantages. Acacia a moderate-sized, deciduous tree and recognised as health-promoting species because of availability of essential bioactive components. The bioactive compounds such as tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids, fatty acids and polysaccharides (gums) present in the plant parts of acacia, namely, bark, leaves, flowers, fruits, twigs and seeds, have medicinal value and thus are used to overlay the formulations of plant-based drugs and value-added foods.

Major well-known bibliometric information sources such as Web of Science, Scopus, Mendeley and Google Scholar were searched with keywords such as “nutrition value of acacia”, “bioactive compounds”, “health benefits”, “processing and safety” were chosen to obtain a database of 1,428 papers. The search considered papers in the English language from the past 18 years of publication in journals (2004–2022). The article selection process consisted of the screening of titles and abstracts, based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Articles that did not have acacia components as a study objective were taken into consideration for exclusion. A final database of 87 scientific sources was made after sorting and classifying them according to different criteria based on topic relevance, country of origin and year of publication. Articles with other random descriptors were also searched to complement the discussion of the results obtained.

The literature reflected that acacia contains all necessary phytochemicals like polyphenols, flavonoids, terpenoids, glucosinolates, alkaloids and carotenoids along with essential macro, micro-nutrients. Furthermore, processing methods such as soaking, cooking, roasting and dehusking significantly reduced the anti-nutritional factors present in acacia seeds of different species. This review also focused on the processing methods that are used to eliminate or lower down the anti-nutritional factors from the seeds. Previous findings related to acacia plant parts with respect to food development are explored and mentioned.

This review emphasised mainly on recent studies that had been reported on ethnomedical acacia plants therapeutically, commercially and exponentially for further studies to increase the utilisation in food processing.

The major objective of this research work was to evaluate various physico-chemical characteristics, such as, chemical composition, antioxidant capacity, objective color and texture profile analysis (TPA) of the wheat flour/chickpea flour (CF) blends, so that nutritious baked products could be consumed by the type-2 diabetic persons.

Wholegrain wheat flour (WGF) and white wheat flour (WWF) were substituted with CF at 0 to 40% levels. These wheat flour/CF blends were analyzed for proximate composition, the prepared dough and baked breads were tested for objective color, antioxidant capacity as trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), malondialdehyde (MDA) and total phenolic content (TPC) and TPA.

WGF had the highest TEAC (117.42 mM/100g) value, followed by WWF (73.98 mM/100g) and CF (60.67 mM/100g). TEAC, MDA and TPC values varied significantly among all the three flour samples.

Inclusion of whole chickpea (without dehulling) flour in such type of blends would be another interesting investigation during the future research studies.

These research findings have a great potential for the production of these baked products for human consumption on an industrial scale.

Production of breads using wheat flour and CF blends would benefits the consumers.

Production of Arabic and pan breads using wheat flour and CF blends would, therefore, combine the benefits of both the needed proteins of plant origin and the health-promoting bioactive compounds, in a most sustainable way for the consumers.

Dietary supplements are important in improving maternal health and birth outcomes during pregnancy. This study aims to assess women’s knowledge about the benefits, sources and proper intake of dietary supplements during pregnancy.

This cross-sectional study was conducted among women at Jordan University Hospital in Amman, Jordan from July to October 2023.

A total of 448 women completed the questionnaire. Analysis of the results showed that among all questions, participants perceived sufficient knowledge about dietary supplements' beneficial effects. Around 50% of the participants did not recognize the importance of vitamin B12 and vitamin A. Most participants identified that iron supplements should not be taken with dairy products, coffee, tea, calcium and antacids. Most participants did not know the source of vitamin A (82.1%), and only 44% knew the correct source of vitamin B12. Less than half of the participants recognized the appropriate administration time for each dietary supplement.

The knowledge level of the interaction between iron and food, natural sources of vitamins and their benefits was high, less than half of the participants showed poor knowledge about the proper time to take the dietary supplement. Patient education and counseling is important to improve health outcomes.