Bioaccesibility, Metabolism, and Excretion of Lipids Composing Spent Coffee Grounds

Evaluation of the Effects of Instant Cascara Beverage on the Brain-Gut Axis of Healthy Male and Female Rats

Instant cascara (IC) is a sustainable beverage obtained from dried coffee cherry pulp, rich in nutrients and bioactive compounds. The present research aimed to determine the effects of IC on general health and brain-gut axis parameters of healthy female and male rats. Wistar rats were exposed to IC (10 mg/mL) in their drinking water for 3 weeks. Body weight and solid and liquid intakes were monitored as indicators of food safety. Gastrointestinal transit was radiographically evaluated one day (acute) and 3 weeks (chronic) after the start of IC exposure. Locomotor activity, anxiety, and anhedonia of the animals after 3 weeks of treatment was also studied. Overall, compared to water-exposed animals, IC significantly increased food intake in males (p < 0.0001) and liquid intake in females (p < 0.05) without changes in body weight in either case. IC did not significantly modify gastrointestinal motility parameters after its acute or repeated intake and did not cause any significant behavioral alterations in males or females (p > 0.05). In conclusion, repeated intake of IC at the studied concentration did not negatively affect brain-gut axis functions of healthy male and female rats. Anxiety behavior, diarrhea, constipation, abnormal weight modifications, or other typical effects of toxicity were not observed in animals treated with the new powdered beverage, suggesting its food safety under the studied conditions.

Fat reduced cookies using an olive oil-alginate gelled emulsion: sensory properties, storage stability and in vitro digestion

Reformulated cookies substituting 100 % butter by an olive oil-alginate gelled emulsion containing 40 % olive oil were elaborated with and without antioxidant, and their nutritional and sensory properties were assessed. Moreover, their performance during in vitro digestion as well as their oxidative stability during storage (21 days) were studied. Reformulated cookies showed a lower fat content (a decrease of 40 %), being this fraction mostly unsaturated (70 % lower saturated fat), in comparison with conventional cookies. Instrumental measures showed higher values for hardness with reformulation, which tends to equalize during storage. Reformulated cookies had good general sensory acceptability, although lower than control ones. Regarding oxidative stability, increases in malondialdehyde were observed in all formulations during storage, but not representing an oxidation problem (<1.5 nmol/g cookies). In vitro digestion assay promoted oxidation, but the use of antioxidants seemed to have a mitigating effect. Also, it seemed that the bioaccessibility of fatty acids after in vitro digestion was higher in the reformulated products (35-40 %) than in the control ones (10-25 %).

Chlorogenic Acids and Caffeine from Coffee By-Products: A Review on Skincare Applications

Upcycling is a modern trend in the cosmetic sector, focusing on by-products reuse and waste reduction. Consumers are more aware of the origin of cosmetic products and their environmental impact, promoting the upcycling phenomenon. Converting these raw materials into products of higher quality or value contributes to the final product’s sustainability. In fact, several agri-food by-products that are typically discarded have generated great interest, due to their value-added compounds with high functionality and/or bioactivity. Coffee is well known as a cosmetic ingredient, particularly due to the presence of phenolic compounds, such as chlorogenic acids, and caffeine. Caffeine is widely used in cosmetic formulations due to its photoprotector and anti-aging properties, as well as lipolytic action in cellulitis, and hair regrowth. Chlorogenic acids are powerful antioxidants and exhibit anti-aging and photoprotector abilities. Coffee by-products, such as coffee beans, possess these bioactive compounds and other chemical characteristics that can provide functional properties in cosmetic formulations. Coffee silverskin and spent coffee grounds are high-volume by-products of the coffee industry. Their use has been explored in different cosmetic formulations demonstrating safety, stability, acceptability as well as skin improvement, thus supporting their valorization as natural and sustainable new ingredients in skincare products.

Radiographic assessment of the impact of sex and the circadian rhythm-dependent behaviour on gastrointestinal transit in the rat

Relatively little is known about the influence of sex and the circadian rhythm on gastrointestinal transit. However, these factors could have an important impact on aspects such as digestion, oral absorption of drugs or the clinical manifestation of gastrointestinal diseases, among others. Remarkably, preclinical models have scarcely taken these factors into consideration. In this study, we assessed the gastrointestinal transit of young adult Wistar Han rats of both sexes, under normal and inverted light cycle. To do this, serial radiographs were taken for 24 h (T0–T24) after intragastric barium administration and subsequently analysed to construct transit curves for each gastrointestinal region. Under a normal light cycle, transit curves were similar, except for a slower transit in females compared with males from T8 to T24. Under the inverted cycle, there was a significant acceleration in stomach emptying (similar in both sexes), emptying of the small intestine (even faster in females) and filling of the caecum and colon (which was also even faster in females). This study confirms, using X-ray non-invasive methods for the first time, that both sex and circadian rhythm (probably through its effect on behaviour) influence gastrointestinal transit in laboratory animals.

Plant-Based Foods and Their Bioactive Compounds on Fatty Liver Disease: Effects, Mechanisms, and Clinical Application

Fatty liver disease (FLD), including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD), is a serious chronic metabolic disease that affects a wide range of people. Lipid accumulation accompanied by oxidative stress and inflammation in the liver is the most important pathogenesis of FLD. The plant-based, high-fiber, and low-fat diet has been recommended to manage FLD for a long time. This review discusses the current state of the art into the effects, mechanisms, and clinical application of plant-based foods in NAFLD and AFLD, with highlighting related molecular mechanisms. Epidemiological evidence revealed that the consumption of several plant-based foods was beneficial to alleviating FLD. Further experimental studies found out that fruits, spices, teas, coffee, and other plants, as well as their bioactive compounds, such as resveratrol, anthocyanin, curcumin, and tea polyphenols, could alleviate FLD by ameliorating hepatic steatosis, oxidative stress, inflammation, gut dysbiosis, and apoptosis, as well as regulating autophagy and ethanol metabolism. More importantly, clinical trials confirmed the beneficial effects of plant-based foods on patients with fatty liver. However, several issues need to be further studied especially the safety and effective doses of plant-based foods and their bioactive compounds. Overall, certain plant-based foods are promising natural sources of bioactive compounds to prevent and alleviate fatty liver disease.

Effects of Coffee and Its Components on the Gastrointestinal Tract and the Brain-Gut Axis

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages consumed worldwide. Roasted coffee is a complex mixture of thousands of bioactive compounds, and some of them have numerous potential health-promoting properties that have been extensively studied in the cardiovascular and central nervous systems, with relatively much less attention given to other body systems, such as the gastrointestinal tract and its particular connection with the brain, known as the brain–gut axis. This narrative review provides an overview of the effect of coffee brew; its by-products; and its components on the gastrointestinal mucosa (mainly involved in permeability, secretion, and proliferation), the neural and non-neural components of the gut wall responsible for its motor function, and the brain–gut axis. Despite in vitro, in vivo, and epidemiological studies having shown that coffee may exert multiple effects on the digestive tract, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiproliferative effects on the mucosa, and pro-motility effects on the external muscle layers, much is still surprisingly unknown. Further studies are needed to understand the mechanisms of action of certain health-promoting properties of coffee on the gastrointestinal tract and to transfer this knowledge to the industry to develop functional foods to improve the gastrointestinal and brain–gut axis health.

Applications of Compounds from Coffee Processing By-Products

To obtain the coffee beverage, approximately 90% of the edible parts of the coffee cherry are discarded as agricultural waste or by-products (cascara or husk, parchment, mucilage, silverskin and spent coffee grounds). These by-products are a potential source of nutrients and non-nutrient health-promoting compounds, which can be used as a whole ingredient or as an enriched extract of a specific compound. The chemical composition of by-products also determines food safety of the novel ingredients. To ensure the food safety of coffee by-products to be used as novel ingredients for the general consumer population, pesticides, mycotoxins, acrylamide and gluten must be analyzed. According with the priorities proposed by the Food Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to maximize the benefit for the environment, society and economy, food waste generation should be avoided in the first place. In this context, the valorization of food waste can be carried out through an integrated bio-refinery approach to produce nutrients and bioactive molecules for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and non-food applications. The present research is an updated literature review of the definition of coffee by-products, their composition, safety and those food applications which have been proposed or made commercially available to date based on their chemical composition.

A Review of Coffee By-Products Including Leaf, Flower, Cherry, Husk, Silver Skin, and Spent Grounds as Novel Foods within the European Union

The coffee plant Coffea spp. offers much more than the well-known drink made from the roasted coffee bean. During its cultivation and production, a wide variety of by-products are accrued, most of which are currently unused, thermally recycled, or used as animal feed. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of novel coffee products in the food sector and their current legal classification in the European Union (EU). For this purpose, we have reviewed the literature on the composition and safety of coffee flowers, leaves, pulp, husk, parchment, green coffee, silver skin, and spent coffee grounds. Some of these products have a history of consumption in Europe (green coffee), while others have already been used as traditional food in non-EU-member countries (coffee leaves, notification currently pending), or an application for authorization as novel food has already been submitted (husks, flour from spent coffee grounds). For the other products, toxicity and/or safety data appear to be lacking, necessitating further studies to fulfill the requirements of novel food applications.

Assessment of Healthy and Harmful Maillard Reaction Products in a Novel Coffee Cascara Beverage: Melanoidins and Acrylamide

Our research aimed to evaluate the formation of Maillard reaction products in sun-dried coffee cascara and their impact on the safety and health promoting properties of a novel beverage called "Instant Cascara" (IC) derived from this coffee by-product. Maillard reaction products in sun-dried coffee cascara have never been reported. "Instant Cascara" (IC) extract was obtained by aqueous extraction and freeze-drying. Proteins, amino acids, lipids, fatty acid profile, sugars, fiber, minerals, and vitamins were analyzed for its nutritional characterization. Acrylamide and caffeine were used as chemical indicators of safety. Colored compounds, also called melanoidins, their stability under 40 °C and in light, and their in vitro antioxidant capacity were also studied. A safe instant beverage with antioxidant properties was obtained to which the following nutritional claims can be assigned: "low fat", "low sugar" "high fiber" and "source of potassium, magnesium and vitamin C". For the first time, cascara beverage color was attributed to the presence of antioxidant melanoidins (>10 kDa). IC is a potential sustainable alternative for instant coffee, with low caffeine and acrylamide levels and a healthy composition of nutrients and antioxidants.

Coffee Silverskin Extract: Nutritional Value, Safety and Effect on Key Biological Functions

This study aimed to complete the scientific basis for the validation of a coffee silverskin extract (CSE) as a novel food ingredient according to European legislation. Nutritional value, safety, effects on biochemical biomarkers and excretion of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in vivo of CSE were assessed. Proteins, amino acids, fat, fatty acids, fiber, simple sugars and micronutrients were analyzed. For the first time, toxicological and physiological effects were evaluated in vivo by a repeated-dose study in healthy Wistar rats. Hormone secretion, antioxidant (enzymatic and no-enzymatic) and anti-inflammatory biomarkers, and dietary fiber fermentability of CSE (analysis of SCFAs in feces) were studied in biological samples. This unique research confirms the feasibility of CSE as a human dietary supplement with several nutrition claims: "source of proteins (16%), potassium, magnesium, calcium and vitamin C, low in fat (0.44%) and high in fiber (22%)". This is the first report demonstrating that its oral administration (1 g/kg) for 28 days is innocuous. Hormone secretion, antioxidant or anti-inflammatory biomarkers were not affected in heathy animals. Total SCFAs derived from CSE fiber fermentation were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in male treated rats compared to male control rats. All the new information pinpoints CSE as a natural, sustainable and safe food ingredient containing fermentable fiber able to produce SCFAs with beneficial effects on gut microbiota.