Dear Colleagues,

Plant-based foods are complex materials, which contain nutrient substances as well as functional/bioactive compounds, for instance, flavones, pigments, polyphenols, polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, antioxidants, enzymes, etc. Foods can produce tons of bioactive compounds during digestion, and all these functional/bioactive compounds play critical roles in human health and even some diseases. Therefore, efficient discovery of such functional/bioactive compounds is significant, especially high-throughput discovery or screening. Because of the rapid development of information science and technology and omics (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, flavour omics, etc.), there is increased use of high-throughput techniques and virtual prediction technology, which greatly promotes the efficient discovery and innovation of functional/bioactive compounds in foods. In addition, examinations of the health effects of these bioactive compounds in plant-based food are active areas of scientific inquiry. There are exciting prospects that some bioactive compounds will reduce the risk of many diseases, including chronic diseases, cancers, etc.

Thus, the present Special Issue will focus on research updates in the characterization and valuation of bioactive plant compounds in terms of new techniques for the screening, prediction and design of functional/bioactive compounds in plant-based foods using high-throughput methods, as well as the establishment of novel techniques in the methodologies of bioactivity in vitro or in vivo, and even the illustration of molecular mechanisms to increase our understanding of the biology of bioactive compounds. This Special Issue will provide the scientific basis for future efforts to use biotechnology to modify or fortify plant-based foods and their components as a means to improve public health.

Prof. Dr. Yingjian Lu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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• bioactive plant compounds 
• nutraceutical 
• omics in plant-based foods 
• fruits and vegetables 
• whole grain 
• health-beneficial properties 
• fermentation/probiotics