2. New trend of research and development of functional food
In recent years, the research and development of functional food presents the following new trends.
2.1 pay more attention to the use of new methods and theories to reveal the role of food ingredients, especially non nutritional components.
Most of food ingredients are mixtures of various ingredients. It is difficult to isolate and purify the effective ingredients and establish the methods and indicators to evaluate their physiological effects. This is an urgent problem that restricts the further development of functional food. In recent years, foreign countries have paid great attention to the study of food active ingredients from the perspectives of epidemiology, genetics, biochemistry, cytology and physiology. For example, in order to understand the mechanism of action of perilla leaf extract, some people in Japan have studied and observed the anti allergic effect of perilla leaf extract and other food ingredients with tumor necrosis factor as the index. Studies have shown that perilla leaf extract has the strongest inhibitory effect on tumor necrosis factor production, and its anti allergy is also the strongest. For another example, in order to evaluate the antioxidant effect of food ingredients, many people are studying simple methods to evaluate oxidative stress. Daze Junyan et al. Studied the evaluation method of oxidative stress with immunochemistry as the focus, and successfully prepared specific antibodies against lipid peroxide, protein and DNA oxidative damage, and established an ELISA method for micro determination of such antibodies, so as to achieve the purpose of evaluating the effect of antioxidant food ingredients from the level of test tube and even individual level.
Using this method, we can detect the level of oxidative stress injury markers in blood, saliva and urine. Food contains a variety of non nutritive functional ingredients, which play an important role in maintaining body health, regulating physical status and preventing diseases, but there are few records in the food composition table. In order to calculate the intake of non nutritive components through the database, analyze its impact on health, and provide basis for the research and development of functional food, Japan's science and technology agency funded an important project "Research on the database of retrieval and identification of non nutrient functional components in food" in 2000 It was completed within the year, with Professor Masai Arai of Tokyo Agricultural University as the chief researcher. First of all, they intend to use high-pressure liquid chromatography to qualitatively and quantitatively determine carotenoids, flavonoids, sulfur compounds, peptides, polyphenols and other substances in various foods, and then make the data of food number, content, chemical structure, molecular weight, physical properties, biological effects, etc. The establishment of the database is of great significance to the construction of functional food in the 21st century, and will promote the development of functional food.
2.2 pay more attention to research and development of new functional food materials
In the early stage of functional food research, the United States, Japan and other countries pay more attention to the health care function of vitamins, trace elements and other nutrients. In recent years, they began to pay attention to the role of natural non nutrient animal and plant ingredients, and strive to find new functional food materials. In recent years, researchers in the United States, Japan and Europe have focused on the research and development of traditional herbal medicines in China, India and South America. For example, sea urchin is the most popular functional food material in Europe, America and Japan in recent years. In the United States, the market scale of sea urchin has been ranked first for several years. In Europe, it is used as a drug to treat respiratory tract and urinary tract infections. For example, in view of the increasing incidence of diabetes, domestic and foreign countries attach great importance to the research and development of functional food materials for diabetes. In recent years, mulberry leaves, as a new functional food material, have attracted more and more attention at home and abroad. Studies have shown that mulberry leaves contain a special component, 1-deoxynojirimycin, which can be used in the small intestine in combination with deoxynojirimycin. - glucosidase binding, and affinity is significantly higher than maltose, sucrose and other disaccharides. Therefore, it can inhibit the decomposition of disaccharide, reduce the absorption of sugar in the intestinal tract, and inhibit the increase of blood glucose after meals. In addition, mulberry leaves can reduce blood cholesterol, regulate intestines and prevent constipation. At present, there are mulberry leaf extract, mulberry leaf powder, mulberry leaf tea and other products.
In recent years, foreign countries have been trying to find new food materials with the effect of brain health and prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease. In order to improve the brain health effect of DHA, lecithin with DHA was extracted from fish roe by Japanese oil company. This product can not only improve memory and learning ability, increase sleep time, but also have anti allergic, hypolipidemic, and improve liver function. It is a new functional food material with great development prospects.
2.3 more emphasis on interdisciplinary and cross national collaboration
Functional food science has developed into a new discipline which is different from the traditional food science and nutrition. It involves many fields, such as botany, food engineering, nutrition, physiology, biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, epidemiology, analytical chemistry and so on. Therefore, in recent years, foreign countries attach great importance to interdisciplinary and cross national collaborative research. In recent years, in Europe and the United States, the establishment of functional food research and development of international organizations and activity system. The United States published the monograph "functional food" and created a functional food magazine "J. nutraceutical functional and medical food". In order to coordinate the research on functional food, the European branch of the International Life Sciences Association has set up a functional food scientific research group by 60 researchers from different countries. It has six sub topics: functional food related to growth, development and differentiation; functional food related to material metabolism; functional food research on antioxidant stress injury; and cardiovascular system related research Functional food research; functional food research related to digestive system; functional food research related to behavior and psychology. They have made a systematic research plan to conduct in-depth and systematic research on functional food. It is reported that the research topic on the effect of food ingredients on cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporosis has recently passed the thesis defense.
In the 21st century, the international competition is becoming increasingly fierce not only in gene research, information technology and other high-tech fields, but also in the research and development of functional food between Japan and the United States and Europe. In order to maintain its leading position in the field of functional food science, Japan has promoted the research of functional food as a national key subject with strategic significance in the era of international competition. In the 21st century, people began to focus on prevention instead of treatment. In this context, the functional food which is expected to have greater development. Chinese medicinal diet has a long history, and has a huge treasure house of Chinese herbal medicine, but the research and development of functional food is obviously lagging behind Japan, Europe and the United States. We should try our best to excavate the precious resources of Chinese herbal medicine, pay attention to the research of food ingredients, and strive to develop functional food with Chinese characteristics, so as to obtain its due position in the fierce international competition.
In the 21st century, the international competition is becoming increasingly fierce not only in gene research, information technology and other high-tech fields, but also in the research and development of functional food between Japan and the United States and Europe. In order to maintain its leading position in the field of functional food science, Japan has promoted the research of functional food as a national key subject with strategic significance in the era of international competition. In the 21st century, people began to focus on prevention instead of treatment. In this context, the functional food which is expected to have greater development. Chinese medicinal diet has a long history, and has a huge treasure house of Chinese herbal medicine, but the research and development of functional food is obviously lagging behind Japan, Europe and the United States. We should try our best to excavate the precious resources of Chinese herbal medicine, pay attention to the research of food ingredients, and strive to develop functional food with Chinese characteristics, so as to obtain its due position in the fierce international competition.
