Letizia Bresciani

Università di Parma | UNIPR · Department of Food Sciences

The demand for bioactive secondary metabolites of natural origin is increasing every day. Micropropagation could be a strategy to respond more quickly to market demands, regardless of seasonality. This research aims to evaluate in vitro-grown plants of two hop varieties, namely Columbus and Magnum, as a potential source of bioactive compounds. The...

A bergamot-based beverage does not affect glucose, lipid and inflammatory biomarkers of cardiometabolic risk in healthy subjects.

Milk holds a high nutritional value and is associated with diverse health benefits. The understanding of its composition of (poly)phenolic metabolites is limited, which necessitates a comprehensive evaluation of the subject. This study aimed at analyzing the (poly)phenolic profile of commercial milk samples from cows and goats and investigating the...

Correction for ‘Nutrikinetics and urinary excretion of phenolic compounds after a 16-week supplementation with a flavanone-rich ingredient’ by Jananee Muralidharan et al. , Food Funct. , 2023, 14 , 10506–10519, https://doi.org/10.1039/D3FO02820H.

Following ingestion of fruits, vegetables and derived products, (poly)phenols that are not absorbed in the upper gastrointestinal tract pass to the colon, where they undergo microbiota-mediated ring fission resulting in the production of a diversity of low molecular weight phenolic catabolites, which appear in the circulatory system and are excrete...

This systematic review provides an overview of the available evidence on the inter-individual variability (IIV) in the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) of phenolic metabolites and its determinants. Human studies were included investigating the metabolism and bioavailability of (poly)phenols and reporting IIV. One hundred f...

Proanthocyanidins (PACs), the predominant constituents within Grape Seed Extract (GSE), are intricate compounds composed of interconnected flavan-3-ol units. Renowned for their health-affirming properties, PACs offer a shield against a spectrum of inflammation associated diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, degenerations and possibly cancer. While...

Background: Polyphenols are a broad group of compounds with a complex metabolic fate. Flavanones and their metabolites provide cardiovascular protection and assistance in long-term body composition management. Objective: This study evaluates the nutrikinetics and the bioavailability of phenolic compounds after both acute and chronic supplementation...

Significance: Hydroxycinnamic acids (HCAs) are the main phenolic acids in the western diet. Harmonizing the available information on the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) of HCAs is fundamental to unravelling the compounds responsible for their health effects. This work systematically assessed pharmacokinetics, including u...

Phenolic catabolites excreted by fasting subjects with a functioning colon and ileostomists on a low (poly)phenol diet have been investigated. Urine was collected over a 12 h fasting period after adherence to a low (poly)phenol diet for 36 h. UHPLC-HR-MS quantified 77 phenolics. Some were present in the urine of both groups in similar trace amounts...

Cranberry (poly)phenols may have potential health benefits. Circulating (poly)phenol metabolites can act as mediators of these effects, but they are subjected to an extensive inter-individual variability. This study aimed to quantify both plasma and urine (poly)phenol metabolites following a 12-week intake of a cranberry powder in healthy older adu...

Italian grape ale (IGA) beers have been categorized by the Beer Judge Certification Program as a sub-category of fruit beers in which grape, or grape must, is added during the brewing process to provide additional characteristics to the final beer. In the present work, IGA beers have been produced with must and pomace of the Malvasia di Candia Arom...

Dietary (poly)phenol intake derived from the daily consumption of five portions of fruits and vegetables could protect against the development of non-communicable diseases. However, the general population does not meet the recommended intake. Supplementation with (poly)phenol-rich ingredients, within a varied and balanced diet, could help in fillin...

(1) Background: The fig tree (Ficus carica L.) is widely cultivated in the Mediterranean area and it produces fruits largely consumed in the Mediterranean diet. Previous studies have shown that this fruit represents a rich source of (poly)phenols, which are mainly located in the peel rather than the pulp. In our study, fig peel derived from twelve...

Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 2022, 66, 202101090 DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.202101090 In article number 2101090, Giuseppe Di Pede and co‐workers apply a 24 h in vitro fecal fermentation of flavan‐3‐ols by human gut microbiota to investigate the role of the flavan‐3‐ol structure in phenolic catabolite production. Catabolic pathways and stoichiometric balances are hi...

This systematic review summarizes findings from human studies investigating the different routes of absorption, metabolism, distribution and excretion (ADME) of dietary flavan-3-ols and their circulating metabolites in healthy subjects. Literature searches were performed in PubMed, Scopus and the Web of Science. Human intervention studies using sin...

A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Flavan-3-ols Colonic catabolic and phase II metabolism [2-14 C](−)-Epicatechin Procyanidins Theaflavins A B S T R A C T Understanding the fate of ingested polyphenols is crucial in elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of a fruit and vegetable-based diet. This review focuses on the co...

Objectives Evidence shows that bioactive (poly)phenols are pivotal in the prevention of chronic diseases, in particular in cardiometabolic health. However, the inter-individual variability existing in their bioavailability and physiological response can impact their true efficacy. Individuals showing similar metabolic profiles for specific (poly)ph...

Scope The present study assesses the absorption, pharmacokinetics, and urinary excretion of coffee pyridines and their metabolites after daily regular exposure to specific dosages of coffee or cocoa-based products containing coffee (CBPCC), considering different patterns of consumption. Methods and results In a three-arm, crossover, randomized tri...

Purpose Extensive inter-individual variability exists in the production of flavan-3-ol metabolites. Preliminary metabolic phenotypes (metabotypes) have been defined, but there is no consensus on the existence of metabotypes associated with the catabolism of catechins and proanthocyanidins. This study aims at elucidating the presence of different me...

Scope: The study evaluated the influence of flavan-3-ol structure on the production of phenolic catabolites, principally phenyl-γ-valerolactones (PVLs) and phenylvaleric acids (PVAs). Methods and results: A set of 12 monomeric flavan-3-ols and proanthocyanidins (degree of polymerisation (DP) of 2-5), were fermented in vitro for 24 h using human...

Background and Aims Aleurone is the innermost layer of wheat bran, rich in fiber, minerals, vitamins, phenolic compounds, and betaine. The metabolic effects of aleurone rich foods are still unknown. Our aim was to investigate the effects of consuming a Wheat Aleurone rich diet vs. a Refined Wheat diet for 8 weeks on fasting and postprandial glycemi...

Background Coffee consumption is associated with a reduced risk of several chronic diseases in a dose-dependent manner. Chronic intake results in the transient appearance of bioactive phenolic metabolites in the circulatory system. However, there is a lack of information on the impact of different patterns of coffee consumption on plasma and urinar...

Background Plasma trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) has drawn much attention as a marker of several chronic diseases. Data on the relation between diet and TMAO are discordant and few human intervention studies have assessed causality for this association. Objectives We aimed to evaluate the effects on plasma TMAO of diets based on foods rich in polyp...

Pasta is a carbohydrate-rich food with a low glycemic index (GI) and is one of the main sources of slowly digestible starch (SDS). The presence of bran fractions (BFs) in pasta may enhance its health potential, owing to the content of fiber, micronutrients, and bioactive compounds; however, at the same time, BF may affect starch digestibility. In t...

PurposeCoffee is an important source of bioactive compounds, including caffeine, trigonelline, and phenolic compounds. Several studies have highlighted the preventive effects of coffee consumption on major cardiometabolic (CM) diseases, but the impact of different coffee dosages on markers of CM risk in a real-life setting has not been fully unders...

Prediction of retention times (RTs) is increasingly considered in untargeted metabolomics to complement MS/MS matching for annotation of unidentified peaks. We tested the performance of PredRet (http://predret.org/) to predict RTs for plant food bioactive metabolites in a data sharing initiative containing entry sets of 29–103 compounds (totalling...

Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon) represent an important source of anthocyanins, flavan-3-ols and flavonols. This study aimed at investigating in vitro the human microbial metabolism of (poly)phenols, principally flavan-3-ols, of unformulated- and phytosome-formulated cranberry extracts. After powder characterization, a 24-h fermentation with hum...

The association between dietary consumption of fibre and health-related gut bacteria is essential but not unique. (Poly)phenols are among the most important bioactive components contained in fibre-rich foods. For this reason, the role of (poly)phenols when considering dietary fibres and health outcomes should be taken into account, as synergic or m...

The consumption of orange juice provides high concentrations of health-promoting bioactive compounds, the amount of which may increase upon alcoholic fermentation. Although fermentation may offer new prospects for the industry of orange-related products, there is a lack of studies reporting the influence of controlled alcoholic fermentation on the...

Quercetin is one of the main dietary flavonols, but its beneficial properties in disease prevention may be limited due to its scarce bioavailability. For this purpose, delivery systems have been designed to enhance both stability and bioavailability of bioactive compounds. This study aimed at investigating the human microbial metabolism of querceti...

It is widely recognized that the biological effects of phytochemicals cannot be attributed to the native compounds present in foods but rather to their metabolites endogenously released after intake. Bioavailability depends on bioaccessibility, which is the amount of the food constituent that is released from the matrix in the gastrointestinal trac...

Coffee is an important source of bioactive compounds, including caffeine, trigonelline, and phenolic compounds. Several studies have highlighted the preventive effects of coffee consumption on major cardiometabolic diseases, but the impact of coffee dosage on markers of cardiometabolic risk is not well understood. Moreover, the pool of coffee-deriv...

Introduction The prevalence of overweight, obesity, and their related complications is increasing worldwide. We aimed to summarise and critically evaluate the effects of different popular diets on anthropometric parameters and metabolic risk factors. Material and methods An umbrella review of meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials was condu...

Free download, Access your PDF reprints: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/authorreprints Manuscript ID: D0FO00350F Password: 626034 (this link will expire in 60 days from 26/05/2020) This study explored plasma levels and urinary and fecal excretion of metabolites and microbial-derived catabolites over a 24 h period following the ingestion of red wi...

Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) is the only edible plant recognized as a dietary source of curcuminoids, among which curcumin, demethoxycurcumin (DMC) and bis-demethoxycurcumin (Bis-DMC) are the most representative ones. Curcumin shows a very low systemic bioavailability and for this reason, several technologies have been adopted to improve it. These t...

The prevalence of overweight, obesity, and their related complications is increasing worldwide. The purpose of this umbrella review was to summarize and critically evaluate the effects of different diets on anthropometric parameters and cardiometabolic risk factors. Medline, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Web of Scienc...

Nut consumption has been hypothesized to be responsible for health benefits toward chronic noncommunicable diseases. There is evidence that nut consumption is associated with decreased risk of several cardiovascular risk factors and better metabolic health. In fact, despite their high content in energy, nut consumption has been associated with lowe...

Wheat bran, a by-product produced in huge amount during cereal milling, is today largely unexploited because of its poor suitability as food ingredient. Solid-state fermentation (SSF) using a Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain was applied to wheat bran and its influence on bioactive compounds (free and bound phenolic acids) and antioxidant activity wer...

Evidence supports an inverse association between nut consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and (poly)phenols have been identified as potential co-mediators of these beneficial effects. This study investigated the acute absorption and the bioavailability of (poly)phenols of a hazelnut skin drink in healthy subjects and assessed its acute...

Plant-based diets rich in bioactive compounds such as polyphenols have been shown to positively modulate the risk of cardiometabolic (CM) diseases. The inter-individual variability in the response to these bioactives may affect the findings. This systematic review aimed to summarize findings from existing randomized clinical trials (RCTs) evaluatin...

Covering: 1958 to June 2018 Phenyl-γ-valerolactones (PVLs) and their related phenylvaleric acids (PVAs) are the main metabolites of flavan-3-ols, the major class of flavonoids in the human diet. Despite their presumed importance, these gut microbiota-derived compounds have, to date, in terms of biological activity, been considered subordinate to th...

Elderberries are good sources of anthocyanins, which are poorly absorbed in the upper gastrointestinal tract but extensively transformed into phenolic metabolites at colonic level. Since different gut microbiota strains have different metabolism, the catabolism of anthocyanins may lead to inter-individual differences in metabolite production. In th...

In the last decades, the consumption of whole wheat has increased because consumers’ awareness has increased toward healthy food. However, breeders’ focus was always attributed to the major components of wheat, but less attention was paid to micronutrients. The aim of this study was to provide new insights on the influence of breeding on total poly...

Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) has been described as a new biomarker of cardiovascular disease (CVD), deriving from dietary choline and L-carnitine gut microbial biotransformation into trimethylamine (TMA), and subsequent hepatic oxidation. (Poly)phenols are among the dietary factors able to interfere with microbial enzymatic activity, possibly modu...

The protective effects of diets rich in fruits and vegetables are not only due to fibre, vitamins and minerals, but also to a diversity of plant secondary metabolites, in particular phenolic compounds and flavonoids. These compounds are now widely used as food ingredients and supplements, with the final aim of making the health benefits associated...

One of the most recently proposed candidates as a potential trigger for cardiovascular diseases is trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO). Possible direct effects of TMAO on myocardial tissue, independent of vascular damage, have been only partially explored so far. In the present study, we assessed the detrimental direct effects of TMAO on cardiomyocyte co...

A total of 17 (poly)phenolic compounds have been quantified in the free and bound fraction of raw, olive oil fried, sunflower oil fried and griddled cardoon (Cynara cardunculus L.). Caffeoylquinic acid derivatives (CQAs), particularly 5-CQA, were the major compounds. The bioaccessibility of (poly)phenols after gastrointestinal digestion and fecal f...

The market of plant-based nutraceuticals and food supplements is continuously growing due to the increased consumer demand. The introduction of new products with relevant nutritional characteristics represents a new way of providing bioactive compounds and (poly)phenols to consumers, becoming a strategy to ideally guarantee the health benefits attr...

A total of 21 (poly)phenolic compounds (free and bound) were quantified in raw, olive oil fried, sunflower oil fried and griddled green pepper before and after a simulated gastrointestinal digestion. Flavonoids, particularly quercetin rhamnoside, were the main compounds. The bioaccessibility of (poly)phenolic compounds after gastrointestinal digest...

Background: Little information is currently available concerning the relative contribution of cardiac parenchymal and stromal cells in the activation of the pro-inflammatory signal cascade,at the initial stages of diabetes. Similarly,the effects of early resveratrol (RSV) treatment on the negative impact of diabetes on the different myocardial cell...

Scope: This work aimed at investigating absorption, metabolism and bioavailability of phenolic compounds after consumption of wholegrain bread or bread enriched with an aleurone fraction. Methods and results: Two commercially available breads were consumed by 15 participants on three occasions and matched for either the amount of ferulic acid in...

BACKGROUND:Whole rye (WR) consumption seems to be associated with beneficial health effects. Although rye fiber and polyphenols are thought to be bioactive, the mechanisms behind the health effects of WR have yet to be fully identified. This study in rats was designed to investigate whether WR can influence the metabolism of n-3 and n-6 long-chain...

Bacterial phyla in the faeces at the beginning (F0) and at the end of the experiment (F12) and in the caecum (Cae) of rats fed a diet containing whole rye (WR) or refined rye (RR). (EPS)

Mass spectral characteristics of isoflavones and lignan in rye diets. (EPS)

Mass spectral chracteristics of urinary polyphenolic metabolites. (EPS)

Wheat aleurone, due to its potentially higher bioaccessibility and bioavailability of micronutrients and phenolic acids, could represent a useful ingredient in the production of commonly consumed cereal-based food. The aim of the present study was to investigate the in vitro bioaccessibility of phenolic acids both from an aleurone-enriched bread an...

Red raspberries, containing ellagitannins and cyanidin-based anthocyanins, were fed to volunteers and metabolites appearing in plasma and urine were analysed by UHPLC-MS. Anthocyanins were not absorbed to any extent with sub nmol/L concentrations of cyanidin-3-O-glucoside and a cyanidin-O-glucuronide appearing transiently in plasma. Anthocyanins ex...

In the present study, the colonic metabolism of three curcuminoids (80.1% curcumin, 15.6%, demethoxycurcumin (DMC) and 2.6% bis-demethoxycurcumin (Bis-DMC)) was evaluated using an in vitro model containing human faecal starters. The breakdown products formed were identified and characterized using different analytical platforms. Following in vitro...

Background:Cognitive function can decline during theagingprocess andsignificantly reducequality of life. Although a number of interventionshave been investigatedforcognitive dysfunction, including antioxidants,this prominent health concern warrants further explorationof additionalmethods to support cognitive health later in life. An aqueous extract...

Coffea arabica silverskin (CSS), the inner fruit layer surrounding coffee beans, was analyzed for its (poly)phenolic and caffeine content by means of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and evaluated for its antioxidant properties by means of the Folin-Ciocalteu and FRAP methods. The most abundant quantified phenolics were caffeoylquinic...

The consumption of wholemeal cereals has been associated with the reduced risk of several chronic diseases, and the mechanisms behind these protective effects may be linked, besides dietary fiber and micronutrients, to an increased intake of hydroxycinnamates contained in the bran. Among bran fractions, aleurone usually contains the highest concent...

High-fat (HF) diets contribute to the development of cardiovascular diseases and the metabolic syndrome. This study was undertaken to investigate the beneficial effects of Vineatrol®-enriched red wines on blood lipids, oxidative stress and inflammation, and the role of some metabolic pathway regulatory proteins. Golden Syrian hamsters received an H...

Background and Aims Trans-resveratrol (RSV) is a natural compound occurring in different foods and plants, which in vivo is rapidly conjugated with glucuronic acid and sulfate. Despite its demonstrated cardioprotective activity, the bioaccumulation of RSV or its metabolites in cardiac tissue is still unknown. Methods and Results Diabetic rats were...