Plant-derived polyphenolic flavonoids have received significant attention in recent years due to their reported biological activities and general abundance in the diet. Nevertheless, these mechanisms have been analysed using pure standards or extracts, disregarding flavonoid bio-transformation, conjugation and (de-)binding occurring during processing and digestion.
This project aims to understand the overlooked polyphenol non-covalent interactions under relevant biophysical and processing environments. We will focus on starch, extracted plant cell walls and biomimicked plant cell walls from edible parts of eudicots and monocots, to understand polyphenol-polysaccharide non-covalent (de-)binding and their role on starch digestion and promotion of beneficial colonic bacteria.
This project will allow to solve the key problem of elucidating the natural consequences of non-covalent interactions between flavonoids and dietary glycans under relevant processing challenges. We will combine thermodynamics, spectral procedures and ex vivo models to understand flavonoid chemical stability, bioaccesibility and bioactivity and, ultimately, decipher key metabolic pathways of flavonoids against high sugar bolus stress inflicted. The project will require a literature review, pilot scale testing, which may then be validated by the industry, and biochemistry.
The project is aligned to UN's SGD:
