Phytochemicals for Health

Phytochemicals for Health presents the state of the art in the field of Phytochemicals. It highlights how, following the interactions of plants and the environment, an analytical approach for standardization and quality control is of fundamental importance to product quality control.

Parts I and II cover the main problems relatied to natural products (plants, extraction, quantitative analysis, relationship with the surrounding environment). Part III presents the main classes of organic compounds identified and reported, and Part IV includes inorganic compounds. It also includes a chapter covering all the natural compounds that have become Active Principle Ingredients (API), highlighting next challenges.

Phytochemicals for Health is a valuable tool for senior scientists working in natural products field interested in investigating the correlation between chemical profile and biological activity in order to obtain a product that is safe for human health.

• Covers extraction, purification and isolation methods of the active compounds in plants
• Highlights characterization and analysis of main organic and inorganic components
• Analyses the effect of the environment on the natural product
• Discusses standardization and quality control fundamental for the development of new products with beneficial activity on human health

Prof. Marcello Locatelli is Associate Professor (from 2020) in Analytical Chemistry at University “G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara and his research activity is aimed at the development and validation of chromatographic methods for the qualitative and quantitative determination of biologically active molecules in human and animal, cosmetics, food, and environmental complex matrices. These procedures have been applied to different analytes and drug associations also finding application in clinical and pre-clinical studies, to characterize new delivery systems of the active principle to improve their pharmacological properties. In the development of the method are predictive models and chemometrics applied both for the optimization of extraction protocols and for final data processing. Particular attention is given to innovative (micro)-extraction techniques and new instrumental configurations for the quantitative analysis of complex matrices. He authored of over 300 articles in International peer reviewed Journals, 10 books, over 30 book chapters and holds a US patent.

Michał Tomczyk pharmacist, member of the Senate of Medical University of Bialystok (2020-2024) and Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica – Drug Research. Since 2018, member of the Team for the Analysis of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Natural Products of the Committee of Analytical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and various international scientific societies including the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Products Research (GA) and the Phytochemistry Society of Europe (PSE). His research focuses on the unique natural products such as polyphenolic compounds and their application in various areas of biomedicine. The natural products/compounds/extracts isolated by the Tomczyk’s laboratory are being examined for anticancer, anticaries, and anti-inflammatory activities. His laboratory also investigates the different analytical methods of natural compounds using a combination of traditional and modern - metabolomic methodologies (LC, HPTLC, and LC-MS). Since 2019, an associate editor of Frontiers in Pharmacology (sec. Ethnopharmacology), an associate editor of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the thematic editor of Molecules or Frontiers in Pharmacology. Member of the editorial board of the following journals: Planta Medica, Acta Pharmaceutica Hungarica, Pharmacognosy Communications, Natural Resources for Human Health and Herbalism. More than 118 manuscripts, 102 oral and poster congress communications and guest editor for 6 special issues attested scientific activity, 100 papers, 1903 citations.

Laura Dugo is Associate professor of Food Chemistry at the Department of Science and Technology for Humans and the Environment, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome. She received her Master Degree in Pharmacy at the University of Messina and the Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, where she also was a post-doctoral fellow at the laboratory of Experimental Pathology. Research activity focuses on food-derived compounds, their biological activity and potential implication of diet composition on human health. Bioactive compounds are investigated through in vitro cellular models of oxidative stress, inflammation and glycation. A specific focus of the research activity is the recovery of bioactive compounds from waste materials of the agri-food chain, with a circular economy perspective, aiming to identify bioactive molecules-rich matrices for nutraceuticals and food supplements manufacturing. 104 peer-reviewed publications, and 5130 citations.

Marina Russo received her Master Degree in Chemistry and the PhD Degree in Chemistry and Food Security at the University of Messina. She had a postdoc grant to carry out a research activity for chemical characterization of by-products and processing of agro-food industry. Currently, she is Associate Professor in Food Chemistry at University of Messina. Research activity of Marina Russo is primarily focused on the development of analytical methods for characterization of nutraceuticals in functional foods. The main topics of research are: development of HPLC and SFC analytical systems for the characterization of nutraceuticals, chiral and non-chiral oxygen heterocyclic compounds in functional foods; isolation and purification of phytochemicals from by-products and processing of agro-food industry; development of on-line extraction techniques coupled with LC and SFC systems for the simultaneous extraction and analysis of bioactive compounds in vegetables. 54 peer-reviewed publications, and 1160 citations.