Discovery Of New Products Research Articles

Changing food choices: the option for high-protein foods and the move away from the Mediterranean diet

Purpose The growing importance placed on health and physical well-being by consumers continues to influence food industry choices. The food market therefore, pandering to the desires for a lean and athletic body, offers new products deemed more healthy and able to impact body image. It is evidenced, thus, a change in food choices and habits, with more attention to the quality and nutrient content of the products consumed, in which protein is assuming increasing importance. The purpose of the study is to highlight important changes in eating habits and in particular the increase in the consumption of high-protein foods, attributable to the focus on physical fitness and thinness, resulting in a decreasing adherence to the Mediterranean diet and the progressive loss of its positive impact on health.Methods and resultsThis analysis is based on CIRCANA srl data on food consumption trends (change percentage of quantity and value sales) in recent years. Specifically, between January and September 2022 vs. 2021, there was a 21.6% increase in the sale of high-protein products, significantly higher than all the previous ones.ConclusionsThe past few years have seen the gradual discovery of new products, at first little-known and niche, which are becoming major players on the national food consumption scene. The trend is toward a growing preference for high-protein foods and diets with the gradual abandonment of the Mediterranean and an increased risk of nutritional deficiencies, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.Level of evidenceLevel IV, evidence obtained from multiple time series with or without the intervention.

N-, O- and S-Heterocycles Synthesis in Deep Eutectic Solvents.

The synthesis of heterocycles is a fundamental area of organic chemistry that offers enormous potential for the discovery of new products with important applications in our daily life such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, flavors, dyes, and, more generally, engineered materials with innovative properties. As heterocyclic compounds find application across multiple industries and are prepared in very large quantities, the development of sustainable approaches for their synthesis has become a crucial objective for contemporary green chemistry committed to reducing the environmental impact of chemical processes. In this context, the present review focuses on the recent methodologies aimed at preparing N-, O- and S-heterocyclic compounds in Deep Eutectic Solvents, a new class of ionic solvents that are non-volatile, non-toxic, easy to prepare, easy to recycle, and can be obtained from renewable sources. Emphasis has been placed on those processes that prioritize the recycling of catalyst and solvent, as they offer the dual benefit of promoting synthetic efficiency while demonstrating environmental responsibility.

Phytochemical and antioxidant analysis in the aerial part of aerva javanica (burm. f.) schult. (amaranthaceae)

Plants are the important source for the discovery of new products of medicinal value for drug development. Secondary plant metabolites are chemical compounds produced by the plant cell, defending themselves from biotic and abiotic stress. The study aims about the qualitative and quantitative analysis of various phytochemicals present in the plant Aerva javanica (Burm.f.) Shult. (Amaranthaceae). The aerial part of the plant was extracted using hexane, chloroform and ethanol and screened for the presence of the secondary metabolites and in vitro antioxidant properties by standard procedures. The present study indicates the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, coumarins, glycosides, carbohydrates, proteins and amino acids. Further findings revealed that the ethanolic extract found to have more constituents in the terms of quantitative analysis and antioxidant activity showed highest radical scavenging activity when compared with other solvent extracts.

Larvicidal activity against Aedes aegypti and molecular docking studies of compounds extracted from the endophytic fungus Aspergillus sp. isolated from Bertholletia excelsa Humn. & Bonpl.

Endophytic fungi are microorganisms capable of colonizing the interior of plant tissues without causing damage to them. The study of the secondary metabolites produced by their vast biodiversity fungal is relevant for the discovery of new products for biotechnological and agrochemical applications. In addition, extract of the endophytic fungus Aspergillus sp., isolated from the almonds of Bertholletia excelsa Humn & Bonlp collected in the Brazilian Amazon, oviposition deterrent, and larvicidal activity of against Aedes aegypti. In the oviposition deterrence test was observed that females able to lay eggs preferred the control oviposition sites (46.6%). Furthermore, the extract showed larvicidal activity with LC50 26.86µg/mL at 24h and 18.75µg/mL at 48h. Molecular docking studies showed the compound Aspergillol B a potent larvicide by to inhibit the acetylcholinesterase enzyme (- 7.74kcal/mol). These results indicate that compounds from secondary metabolites of Aspergillus sp., isolated from almonds of B. excelsa, are useful biological potential against vectors A. aegypti.

Plants Secondary Metabolites as Medicines: A Review

Medicinal plants are the most important source of life saving drugs for the majority of the world’s population. Plants are an important source for the discovery of new products of medicinal value for drug development as they produce a wide variety of secondary metabolites which serve them as defense compounds against herbivores and microbes. Secondary metabolites produced by plants do not aid in the growth and development of plants but are required for the plants to survive in its environment. They have been described as antibiotic, antifungal, antiviral and they are able to protect plants from pathogens. Products isolated from them have been used to treat infections, health disorders or diseases. In modern medicine, they provided lead compounds for the production of medications for treating various diseases from migraine up to cancer. This review deals with the Pharmacological activity and important functions of secondary metabolites in valuable medicinal herbs as Antimalarial, Antidiabetic, Hepatoprotective, Antiulcer, Antiinflammatory, Antimicrobial.

From Past to Present: Biotechnology in Mexico Using Algae and Fungi.

Algae and fungi share a rich history in the fields of basic and applied natural science. In biotechnology, in particular, algae and fungi are of paramount importance, due to the production and development of valuable compounds, such as pharmaceuticals, enzymes, and biofuels. They are also used in waste fermentation, biocontrol of pathogens, and food processing and improvement, among other fields. Although a substantial number of different microorganisms are utilized for these purposes, there lies tremendous potential in uncharacterized microbial species. For this reason, biodiversity hotspots offer a wealth of potential in the discovery of new products and processing strategies based on these microorganisms. This review presents an overview of the use of algae and fungi in pre-Hispanic times/modern-day Mexico for the benefits of mankind. One of our objectives is to raise awareness about the potential of developing research projects for identification and biotechnological utilization of algae and fungi in a megadiverse country, such as Mexico.

Extension of Spectral Shift Controls from Equivalent Substitution to an Energy Migration Model Based on Eu2+/Tb3+-Activated Ba4-xSrxGd3-xLuxNa3(PO4)6F2 Phosphors.

Single-phase phosphors with tunable emission colors are crucial to develop high-performance white light-emitting diodes since they are valuable to improve the energy efficiency, color rendering index, and correlated color temperature. Most of the studies have been conducted to control the spectral shifts via a polyhedral distortion or chemical unit cosubstitution strategy. The combination of host optimization and dopant activator design in a single-phase phosphor system is very rare. Herein, a partial substitution strategy of [Ba2+-Gd3+] by [Sr2+-Lu3+] has been employed in Ba4-xSrxGd3-x-yLuxNa3(PO4)6F2/5% Eu2+ (x = 0-0.40) phosphors. Also, the energy migration from Eu2+ to Tb3+ ions has been investigated in as-prepared samples. Consequently, the emitted signal is observed to shift from 470 to 575 nm derived from equivalent substitutions, which is attributed to specific performance by the emission profile of Eu2+, and such results are closely related to splitting of the crystal field and energy transfer among various luminescent centers. Moreover, the tunable yellowish-green emitting material has been assembled by incorporating ion pairs (Eu2+ → Tb3+) into the Ba3.85Sr0.15Gd2.85Lu0.15Na3(PO4)6F2, and their relative ratios are varied. The corresponding Eu2+ → Tb3+ energy migration process is assigned to be the dipole-quadrupole interaction by the Inokuti-Hirayama model. This work provides rational guidance for the design and discovery of new products with tunable emission colors, originating from the cosubstitution strategy and energy conversion model.

Osteopontin and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-Immunoreactivity in Critical Bone Defects Matrix Production: A Nano-Hydroxyapatite/Beta-Tricalcium Phosphate and Xenogeneic Hydroxyapatite Comparison

The development of new bone substitutes has become an area of great interest in materials science. In fact, hydroxyapatite is the most commonly used biomaterial in defects that require bone reconstruction, and that is certainly why the discovery of new products with its formulation has been increasing continuously. The aim of this study was to analyze the biological behavior of a xenogeneic hydroxyapatite widely disclosed in the literature and a synthetic nano-hydroxyapatite/Beta tricalcium phosphate in critical defects in the calvaria of Wistar rats. For this, the groups were divided as follows: 24 adult male Wistar rats were used, weighing between 300 and 350 g, in three groups with eight animals each. In the CTRL group (control), only the clot was kept, without material insertion; in the Bioss group (bovine hydroxyapatite), Bio Oss®—Gleistlich® was introduced; and in the Blue Bone group (REG), the defect was filled in with synthetic nano-hydroxyapatite associated with betatriphosphate of calcium, Blue Bone®—Regener®. According to the results in Goldner’s Trichromics, we can observe a higher percentage of newly formed bone matrix in the REG group than in the CTRL and Bioss groups; in the VEGF, we had a more adequate cell modulation for blood vessel formation in the Blue Bone group (REG) compared to the Bioss and CTRL groups, while in osteopontin, a higher percentage of bone formation was observed in the Blue Bone group (REG) and Bioss group when compared to the CTRL group. We conclude that bone formation, mitosis-inducing cell modulation and main osteoblast activity were higher in the Blue Bone group (REG) than in the CTRL and Bioss groups.

Visible Post-Data Analysis Protocol for Natural Mycotoxin Production.

Fungal natural products are routinely analyzed using target detection protocols by comparing to commercial standards. However, discovery of new products suffers from a lack of high-throughput analytical techniques. Post-data process techniques have become popular tools for natural product confirmations and mycotoxin family analysis. In this work, a visible post-data process procedure with MZmine, GNPS, and Xcalibur was used for efficient analysis of high-resolution mass spectrometry. Conjugated products were screened with an optimized diagnostic fragmentation filtering module in MZmine and further confirmed with Xcalibur by comparing to unconjugated commercial standards. MS/MS spectral data were processed and used to establish a feature based on a molecular networking map in GNPS (Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking; https://gnps.ucsd.edu), for visualization of fungal natural product families. The results demonstrate the potential of combining MZmine-, GNPS-, and Xcalibur-based methods for visible analysis of fungal natural products.

Scientific human resource for national development in Ghana: Issues and challenges

Studies have established that science and technology applications have culminated in the discovery of new products, new processes, improved and faster services, better ways of solving human and environmental challenges as well as opportunities for new jobs. Therefore, understanding and use of scientific knowledge is critical in responding to national development needs and challenges. The paper provides evidence of Ghana's scientific and technological responsiveness to leveraging scientific human potentials in order to confront societal and development challenges. A cross sectional survey was conducted in 33 public and private tertiary institutions in Ghana. Census was used to select public institutions while private institutions were purposively selected to assess science student enrolment, science academic staff, science infrastructure including laboratories, as well as funding sources for research activities. The results observed inadequate scientific infrastructure in tertiary institutions. Master’s degree holders constitute the majority of the science academic staff. Total PhD enrolment in public tertiary institutions increased by 86.7%, while PhD enrolment in science programmes decreased by 22.3% from 2013 to 2015. The paper recommends a holistic approach to tertiary level scientific education to enhance national development in Ghana.

Bacterial communication between Lactobacillus spp. isolated from poultry in the inhibition of Salmonella Heidelberg-proof of concept.

Bacterial communication has become an increasingly studied topic aiming at the discovery of new products to aid the treatment of diseases for which conventional options do not work. The production of safe foods, free of pathogens, has been receiving increasing attention due to market demands for food products of high quality and free of residues. This study assessed the communication between Lactobacillus spp. during the in vitro inhibition of Salmonella Heidelberg (SH) and the impact an autoinducer produced by a strain of Lactobacillus plantarum has on communication in the normal microbiota and inhibiting SH in newborn chicks. For this purpose, the isolates of Lactobacillus spp. were isolated cloacal swabs of broilers and identified through biochemical and molecular assays and were obtained from broiler farms. They later had their inhibitory potential against SH stimulated after contact with the autoinducer. For assessing bacterial communication (quorum sensing) during the inhibition of SH by Lactobacillus spp., a spot on the lawn assay was conducted. For the in vivo, 75 one-day-old chicks were divided in 5 experimental groups: control with no treatment; treatment with a Lactobacillus spp. pool on the first day; treatment with autoinducer on the second day; treatment with Lactobacillus spp. on the first day; and autoinducer on the second day and treatment without autoinducer. The autoinducer was assessed through an SH count in the ceca of the birds. The autoinducer produced by the strain of L. plantarum proved to be efficient for communicating with the other Lactobacillus spp. isolates as previous contact with SH induced the production of an autoinducer capable of increasing inhibition of SH both in vitro (in average 132.73%) and in vivo, acting similarly to the Lactobacillus spp. pool (probiotic) by decreasing the SH count in the ceca (64%-24h, 42%-96h, and 46%-168h).

Fungal volatile chemicals in the air and their effects on health

Various mixtures of gas-phase, carbon compounds volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by fungi are able to diffuse through the atmosphere and soils due to their small size. Fungal VOCs may contribute to a controversial medical diagnosis called ‘sick building syndrome’ or ‘building related illness’ (BRI). Both atopic and normal people exhibit statistically significant physiological and psychological effects when exposed to the odorant compounds emitted by fungi, so it has been hypothesized that these odorants may cause or contribute to BRI. Mold odors are caused by mixtures of VOCs, low molecular mass compounds with high vapor pressure that exist in the gaseous state at room temperature. Different species and strains of filamentous fungi produce different VOC profiles. Approximately 250 VOCs have been identified from fungi where they occur as mixtures of simple hydrocarbons, heterocycles, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, phenols, thioalcohols, thioesters and derivatives. The diverse functions of fungal VOCs can be developed for use in biotechnological applications for biofuel, biocontrol and mycofumigation. Volatiles represent a new frontier in bioprospecting, and the study of these gas-phase compounds promises the discovery of new products for human exploitation and will generate new hypotheses in fundamental biology

Intellectual Property Rights, Public Choice, Networks, and the New Age of Informal IP Regimes

In this Article, we review the literature on formal versus informal regimes for protecting intellectual property (IP) rights, the stated aims of which are to encourage investments in myriad creative activities that foster economic growth (through the discovery of new products and new production methods) or expand the aesthetic pleasures of human life (literary and artistic works). Public choice concerns about competition for—and capture of—the rents associated with patents and copyrights suggest that formal government enforcement of intellectual property rights is not the first-best option in some cases and is counterproductive in others. We then explore the effectiveness of alternative, informal means of protecting intellectual property rights, such as trade secrets, first-mover advantages and the “street-performer protocol,” in facilitating the appropriation of returns to the time, effort and money required to discover new knowledge and new ideas sufficient to make such investments worthwhile ex ante. E...

Scientists as free riders: Strategies for managing innovation in the Dutch East India Company

As the Dutch East India Company expanded its presence in Asia during the seventeenth century, discovery of new products and medical materials was central to its continued success and survival. This new product innovation was difficult to manage directly however because the routine- driven, efficiency-focused organization was ill-suited to research and discovery required for bioprospecting and innovation. Instead, the Company tacitly allowed its employees in Asia to conduct this research on their own. Scientists became free riders, exploiting their administrative authority and corporate resources to further their private research projects. This symbiotic public-private partnership enabled employees to use Company resources to undertake large-scale economic and scientific surveys of its Asian domains. These decentralized, entrepreneurial projects cut across the boundaries of caste, language, religion and theoretical orientation to assemble a new, systematic view of Asian knowledge. While not centrally planned (nor always officially condoned) these surveying efforts had all of the hallmarks a systematic colonial project to map out the sources of value in a foreign colony, and demonstrate the ways in which Dutch commercial ventures expanded their missions as they solidified their control in Asia.

The role of institutional arbitrage in the search for product innovation: Firm level evidence from Norway

Evolutionary theorizing conceptualizes the discovery of new products as a successful outcome from searching for innovation in which firms combine new and old knowledge and resources. Prior research has shown that the propensity for discovering new products is greatest when firms cross a technological and/or organizational boundary in the search for new knowledge. In this paper, we add a new dimension to this literature: we examine whether, and to what extent, crossing a national boundary, as when firms use knowledge from network partners in foreign countries, influences the likelihood that firms will introduce new products into the market. Drawing on theorizing on institutional arbitrage in the literature on national innovation systems (NIS) and varieties of capitalism (VOC), we propose that companies that cross a national boundary in searching for innovation are significantly more likely to introduce new products. Detailed survey data on firms; data on their network partners, including their location; and regression analysis show that the use of knowledge from actors in foreign NIS has a positive influence on product innovation.

Searching for Blue Oceans: Mental Representation and the Discovery of New Strategies

This paper studies how managers come up with new strategies by reinterpreting a popular management tool, Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS), from the perspective of theories of mental representation and search. We formally explore this issue by developing a parsimonious simulation model of the process of discovery of new products. Our model infuses BOS with cognitive considerations (such as the role of mental representations and search) and BOS infuses previous search models of the Carnegie tradition with managerially meaningful search primitives (the addition and deletion of product/service attributes, and varying attribute levels). The model presented here sheds light on several questions: (i) under what conditions is a method like BOS more likely to be a successful search strategy? (ii) how to improve the chances of discovering valuable strategies? and (iii) how much risk is incurred by searching using a BOS-like heuristic? Additionally, by analyzing the risk and return of strategies, our model also provides ad...

Communities of practice: keeping the company agile

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide managers, researchers, and consultants with insights into the ways communities of practice (CoPs) simultaneously support organizations' product refinements (their knowledge exploitation and alignment thereof to today's business demands) and the search for and discovery of new products (knowledge exploration and adapting it to changes in the business environment).Design/methodology/approachThe research design is based on a four‐year longitudinal case study of five CoPs within a specialty chemicals division of a multinational company. Primary (interviews, direct observation) and secondary (internal documents) data were collected and analyzed, resulting in several findings on the role of CoPs in supporting organizational ambidexterity by simultaneously exploiting existing knowledge (aligned to the current business) while exploring new knowledge (adaptive/reactive to business environment changes).FindingsThe main conclusion drawn from the study is that supporting organizational ambidexterity involves switching between different degrees of managerial involvement in CoPs, namely “aligned” and “adaptive” modes. Alignment results in knowledge exploitation that supports “product refinements”, while the adaptive mode leads to knowledge exploration that supports the “search & discovery of new products”.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are based on a single case study of a firm that used CoPs successfully to support product refinements and search for new products across its R&D teams. Hence, generalizing these results would require analyzing additional cases.Practical implicationsThe paper provides managers with practical recommendations on how to align CoP dynamics with an organization's specific needs to simultaneously exploit and explore new knowledge. On the one hand, CoPs require a great deal of autonomy to generate a search for and discovery of new ideas or knowledge. On the other hand, managers can and should steer CoP activities when their alignment to business and product refinement is required.Originality/valueThe data, approach, and analysis are all original. This paper enriches existing theory as it fulfills an unexplored gap between CoPs and organizational ambidexterity. In this respect, CoP and organizational ambidexterity theories are all enriched.

Copyright Research in the Digital Age: Moving from Piracy to the Supply of New Products

Twelve years into the Napster era, economists have devoted substantial attention to revenue consequences of unpaid file sharing. Yet, this is only one of a host of questions whose answers are needed to inform evidence-based copyright policy in the digital era. Digitization's effect on travel agents suggests fruitful research questions, which include the impact of digitization on the supply of new works, methods for consumer discovery of new products, and new business models available with digital distribution.

Current approaches toward production of secondary plant metabolites

Plants are the tremendous source for the discovery of new products with medicinal importance in drug development. Today several distinct chemicals derived from plants are important drugs, which are currently used in one or more countries in the world. Secondary metabolites are economically important as drugs, flavor and fragrances, dye and pigments, pesticides, and food additives. Many of the drugs sold today are simple synthetic modifications or copies of the naturally obtained substances. The evolving commercial importance of secondary metabolites has in recent years resulted in a great interest in secondary metabolism, particularly in the possibility of altering the production of bioactive plant metabolites by means of tissue culture technology. Plant cell and tissue culture technologies can be established routinely under sterile conditions from explants, such as plant leaves, stems, roots, and meristems for both the ways for multiplication and extraction of secondary metabolites. In vitro production of secondary metabolite in plant cell suspension cultures has been reported from various medicinal plants, and bioreactors are the key step for their commercial production. Based on this lime light, the present review is aimed to cover phytotherapeutic application and recent advancement for the production of some important plant pharmaceuticals.

Study to Evaluate the Physicochemical Properties and Phytochemical Constituents of Five Aromatic Plants

Aromatic plants are a tremendous source for the discovery of new products of medicinal value for drug development. Of late, several distinct chemicals derived from plants are important drugs. In the present investigation, alkaloid, saponin, steroid, phlobatannin, terpenoid, flavonoid, cardiac glycoside and phenol distribution were assessed and compared in five different aromatic plants belonging to two families.