Our planet’s resources have been declining, as you know. The life qualities of humans have also changed a little because of their economy, nutrition, sports, and family life. Therefore, more alternative resources are being sought after by humans. Also, in the food supply for animals, scientists have been researching different and alternative supplements for growth performance, immunity, reproduction, and metabolism. Spirulina platensis and its contents have been linked to a nutritional component in both human and animal health and welfare. Growth and immunomodulation properties of this supplement have been widely studied in animals and humans, recently. Nowadays, nutritional specifics of S. platensis are a main focus for researchers. S. platensis is a single-cell protein due to its rich components, such as protein, essential amino acids, fatty acids, antioxidant pigments, carotenoids, beta-carotene, and phycocyanin. Today, researchers study the nutritional quality and investigate the effects of S. platensis on growth, immunity, antioxidant, antitoxicologic, anticancerogenic, cholesterol and glucose metabolism, and fertility. For these reasons, S. platensis may be acceptable as an alternative and/or superfood for the next generation. So, we review this information regarding S. platensis using historical background, literature reviews, qualitative studies, and microscopic appearances in this chapter.
Part of the book: Superfood and Functional Food
Stress can exist by a variety of daily challenges related to obesity, other eating disorders, long-term health issues and immune system suppression. Free radicals derived from oxygen, called reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species and similarly antioxidants are part of the body’s natural functioning. Oxidative stress occurs when free radicals and antioxidants are out of balance. The prooxidant-antioxidant balance is assessed by determination of both oxidant and antioxidant status, which can be measured simultaneously in blood and tissue. Dietary or natural antioxidants play an important role in helping the endogenous antioxidants in scavenging the excess of free radicals. Antioxidant supplements include several important substances such as beta carotene, lutein, phycocyanin and zeaxanthin, which are rich in vegetables, fruits and natural foods. All these contents have a key role in growth, immunity and lifetime quality. Still, high dose of the natural foods can cause the organism, not to assimilate the wastes by the mechanism. In this chapter, we’ll inquire to explain the oxidative and antioxidative mechanisms and balance via importance of the natural antioxidants to life quality. For this purpose, oxidative stress, related diseases, antioxidants and their importance will be reviewed, and the correlation between natural antioxidants and health will be presented.
Part of the book: The Health Benefits of Foods
Saccharomyces is a eukaryotic organism that possesses approximately 6,000 known genes since 1996. It has long been used for food, bakeries, drinks, and therapeutics due to its many ingredients and its role in several mechanisms. Saccharomyces can be used as an experimental organism for medicinal products in the pharmaceutical industry. Particularly in public health, the use of Saccharomyces in the production of vaccines is remarkable. It has been alleviated that this yeast helps clarify the function of individual proteins in pathogenic viruses. To clarify virus life and host interactions, virus replication systems in Saccharomyces were interested in scientists. The new antiviral strategies with yeasts suggest the biological mechanism of a pathogen virus. Due to the variety of diseases and current epidemic conditions, these organisms play an essential role in prevention and treatment. This chapter will try to update Saccharomyces’ scientific discoveries with the most recent and up-to-date literature.
Part of the book: Saccharomyces
Natural antioxidant compounds have different mechanisms of treatment and prevention against various diseases due to their richest ingredients. There are several antioxidants used today, such as phytogenic ingredients, flavonoids, capsaicin, spirulina, beta-glucan, polyphenol etc. Besides the outbreak of diseases, the ability to scavenge oxidative conditions of the natural antioxidants have been notably important. Thereby, therapeutic strategies of diseases have been interested by researchers. Try to seek a kind of effects of natural antioxidants to various diseases, especially viral or pandemic diseases are being important nowadays. This chapter we’ll mention about how to viral or pandemic disease’s effects on oxidative status in both animals and humans, and what kind of phytochemical ingredients would be a positive effect on. At the same time, the latest advances about these natural antioxidant compounds and pharmaceuticals will be critically highlighted and discussed with newest literatures.
Part of the book: Antioxidants
Herbs have a wide variety of chemical compounds that can support food quality, medicines, and biotechnology approaches. Over the years, extensive research has been carried out in genetic engineering of foods, including improving the feasibility of herbs. The story behind the herbal genetic technology relates to food allergy, the pharmaceutical industry, and of course, the growing food shortage that is the biggest nutritional issue of this century. Researchers have highlighted that in genome editing, creating synthetic biology is a good strategy. Furthermore, the production of secondary metabolites in herbs may be enhanced through genetic methods. The researchers investigated the plants’ secondary metabolic pathways as well as their genetic alterations. Yet there are some herbal remedies used in genetic engineering. This chapter begins with a discussion of our studies of functional foods and their effects on human and animal health. Next, we will highlight the importance of genome editing in herbs and methodologies. Additionally, the differences between natural functional foods and genome editing herbs will try to prove efficacy on humans and animals. Consequently, we will attempt to reveal if genomic foods have protective effects on health and particularly on pandemic diseases.
Part of the book: Current Topics in Functional Food
The relationship between horses and human is unique over the course of the story. The first researchers focused on the horse-human bond as a friendship and believed that it improved the welfare of horses. Today, the role of horses is different from that of history. However, the overall perception is that the horse-human connection requires significant interpretation and explanation. The most important aspect of communicating with the horse is that it is silent. To achieve that, the well-being of horses must develop a good physiological and psychological awareness. To this end, the advancement of sensors and wearable technology creates a facility for measuring and exploring the natural environment. Among the amazing advancements in this area are smartphones, flat screens, high-speed cameras, analog software, GPS tracking, and Bluetooth. In this chapter, we will attempt to explain the emphasis put on the importance of the horse-human bond and interaction for animal beings. Furthermore, we will review the roles of new technologies in the physiological and psychological situations of the horse, and studies of horse-human connection belong to recent research. In this way, we will have put a vision on the side of animals on the horse and the human connection and interaction.
Part of the book: Equine Science