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Chemo-Enzymatic Approaches for An Efficient and Sustainable Preparation of Natural and Nature-Inspired Antioxidants

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Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The development of green and sustainable strategies for the recovery and synthesis of value-added molecules with antioxidant properties is considered a hot topic in many sectors of industry, including food, pharmaceutics, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics.

In this context, enzyme-assisted approaches are powerful tools for streamlining the recovery of antioxidants from natural sources (e.g., terpenes, phenolic compounds, phytosterols), as well as for the synthesis of analogues and metabolites in order to study structure–activity relationships and optimize their biological properties.

Chemo-enzymatic routes merge the advantages of chemical transformations with the high efficiency of biocatalysis. Enzymatic transformations are not only characterized by high chemo-, regio-, and stereo-selectivity, but also, due to the mild reaction conditions, are considered one of the key enabling technologies in chemistry in terms of safety, productivity, and reduction of environmental footprint.

In this Special Issue, we invite scientists to collect original research articles, review papers, reports, or communications on the development of enzyme-assisted extraction procedures and on the chemo-enzymatic synthesis of natural antioxidants and their analogues. For all novel compounds, a complete chemical characterisation together with an investigation of the mechanism of action and in vitro/in vivo assays should be included.

We look forward to your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Andrea Pinto
Dr. Martina Letizia Contente
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antioxidants is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

natural and synthetic antioxidants
chemo-enzymatic synthesis
enzyme-assisted extraction
key enabling technologies
sustainability
biological evaluation
structure-activity relationship studies

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 748 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Efficient 2-Step Enzymatic Cascade for the Bioconversion of Oleuropein into Hydroxytyrosol

by Giorgia Catinella, Silvia Donzella, Gigliola Borgonovo, Sabrina Dallavalle, Martina Letizia Contente and Andrea Pinto

Antioxidants 2022, 11(2), 260; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/antiox11020260 - 28 Jan 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1994

Abstract

Among the plant bioactive components, oleuropein (OLE) is the most abundant phenolic compound in all parts of olive trees (Olea europaea L.), particularly concentrated in olive leaves. It has been shown to present various remarkable biological actions, such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer and anti-inflammatory ones. On the other hand, hydroxytyrosol (HT), the main degradation product of OLE, is considered one of the most powerful antioxidant agents, with higher beneficial properties than the OLE parent compound. In this work, oleuropein was efficiently transformed into hydroxytyrosol using a 2-step biotransformation involving a thermo-halophilic β-glucosidase from Alicyclobacillus herbarius (Ahe), which gave the corresponding aglycone with complete conversion (>99%) and rapid reaction times (30 min), and an acyltransferase from Mycobacterium smegmatis (MsAcT), here employed for the first time for its hydrolytic activity. After cascade completion, hydroxytyrosol was obtained in excellent yield (>99% m.c., 96% isolated yield) in 24 h. Starting from a natural substrate and employing enzymatic approaches, the final hydroxytyrosol can be claimed and commercialized as natural too, thus increasing its market value. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Chemo-Enzymatic Approaches for An Efficient and Sustainable Preparation of Natural and Nature-Inspired Antioxidants)

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Review

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16 pages, 1842 KiB

Open AccessReview

Mini-Review on the Enzymatic Lipophilization of Phenolics Present in Plant Extracts with the Special Emphasis on Anthocyanins

by Karina Jasińska, Agata Fabiszewska, Ewa Białecka-Florjańczyk and Bartłomiej Zieniuk

Antioxidants 2022, 11(8), 1528; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/antiox11081528 - 05 Aug 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1917

Abstract

Different plant extracts have the potential to be important sources of phenolic compounds. Their antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant properties are of interest to researchers due to various possibilities for use in the pharmacy, cosmetic and food industries. Unfortunately, the direct application of phenolics in food is limited because of their hydrophilic nature and low solubility. The review is devoted to the recent advances in the methods of lipophilization of phenolic extracts along with the use of enzymes. The concept of extract modification instead of single compound modification is based on the expected synergistic effect of many phenolic compounds. The main focus is on the phenolic compounds found in fruits, flowers and leaves of different common and underutilized as well as medicinal, folk-medicinal or endemic plants. The compiled papers point to the great interest in the modification of anthocyanins, highly active but often unstable phenolics. Some examples of other flavonoids are also outlined. The possible applications of the lipophilized plant extracts are presented for improving the stability of edible oils, decreasing the content of acrylamide, exhibiting higher color stability in thermal processing and increasing the nutritional value. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Chemo-Enzymatic Approaches for An Efficient and Sustainable Preparation of Natural and Nature-Inspired Antioxidants)

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