Isolation and Identification of bioactive compounds in vegetable foods that affect metabolic processes related to obesity

• Grant number: 09/00428-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2009
• End date: April 30, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Food Science and Technology - Food Science
• Principal Investigator: Deborah Helena Markowicz Bastos
• Grantee: Deborah Helena Markowicz Bastos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Saúde Pública (FSP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The increasing number of obese people worldwide, including low-income families, calls for strategies aiming the weight reduction and improvement of secondary effects correlated with obesity. It is clear, from epidemiological studies, that diets which are rich in fruits, whole grains and legumes can protect against certain cancer types, cardiovascular diseases and other non communicable diseases. These effects depends on the bioactive compounds in vegetable food, such as carotenoids, polyphenols, sulfur compounds, phytoestrogens and terpenoids, that act sinergisticaly. The access to vegetable food in the appropriate portion for health improvement is limited. This limitation is higher for low-income families, due to the highest cost in relation to high caloric density food. Food able to suppress apetite, to inhibit calories absorption and to prevent pathologic process (as atherosclerosis and glycation) related to obesity must be present in the diet. The commercialization of dietary supplements which contains vegetal extracts that stimulate the weight reduction and the recent interest in Hoodia gordonii species, as an appetite inhibitor, are examples to highlight the importance of some species used as food in obesity treatment. This work aims to identify the bioactive substances from vegetal sources used as food, which can contribute for the prevention of the obesity, in order to evaluate the biological feasibility of the protective action front to the obesity and its consequences. (AU)