Eva Ivanišová

By Eva Ivanišová, Miroslava Kačániová, Tatsiana A. Savitskaya and Dmitry D. Grinshpan

Medicinal herbs accompany people throughout life – from birth to the grave. Almost every day they come to our table as a part of food in various forms, many are used for technical and bioenergetics purposes, and there is also a large group of plants used in medicine, pharmacy and food industry. In the last decade, the consumption of herbs and spices has increased. They grow spontaneously and free of chemical additives, and some studies have shown higher nutritional value, often more significant compared to other common food plants. Medicinal herbs become increasingly important due to its potential beneficial health effects related to its nutritional composition, such as the presence of vitamins, phenolic, anthocyanins, flavonoids, tannins, among others. These raw materials are considered to be promising, economically and ecologically advantageous for the food industry. In this chapter will be describe selected medicinal herbs from Lamiaceae family – bioactive compounds and possibility for using in food industry.

Part of the book: Herbs and Spices

By Zuzana Hlaváčová, Eva Ivanišová, Peter Hlaváč, Ľubomír Kubík, Daniela Kunecová, Monika Božiková and Vlasta Vozárová

The growth of diet-related diseases (obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular diseases) is becoming an important societal concern and a challenge for a more sustainable society. This has developed important trends in food consumption, including the increasing demand for innovative food with natural attributes and with health claims (foods with added value, enriched foods, and functional foods). The physical properties of food are essential for scientists and engineers at solving the problems in food preservation, processing, storage, marketing, consumption, and even after consumption. In this chapter, we introduce the utilization of physical properties in enriched foods evaluation. The correlations were found between physical properties and other characteristics of foods.

Part of the book: Trends and Innovations in Food Science

By Judita Lidiková, Natália Čeryová, Tomáš Tóth, Janette Musilová, Alena Vollmannová, Kushvara Mammadova and Eva Ivanišová

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is one of the greatest gifts of natural medicine and the oldest medicinal herbs that is cultivated all over the world. It is a widely used spice plant with well-known medicinal properties. Garlic is an important raw material of plant origin with observed and proven positive effects on the human body. A. sativum L. belongs to the most extensively studied medicinal herbs from genus Allium. In the past few decades, its biologically active compounds have been analyzed for their therapeutical properties. The most essential biologically active compound discovered in A. sativum is allicin, working synergistically with other phytochemicals in the prevention of many diseases. Preparation of garlic extractions can be done in liquid form and solid form. The composition and bioactivity of the extraction depend on the strain, age, method of preparation, and consumption method. When extracted and isolated, the bioactive compounds of garlic show a wide range of beneficial health effects: platelets inhibitory and antithrombic activities, hepatoprotective, antimicrobial, antihyperglycemic, antidiabetic, and antitumor. The present chapter describes botanical characterization of garlic, its chemical composition regarding bioactive compounds, and its health benefits.

Part of the book: Herbs and Spices