Dietary supplementation has been studied as an approach to ameliorating deficits associated with aging and neurodegeneration. We undertook this pilot study to investigate the effects of coconut oil supplementation directly on cortical neurons treated with amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide in vitro. Our results indicate that neuron survival in cultures co-treated with coconut oil and Aβ is rescued compared...

The high oil content of the avocado fruit (Persea americana Mill.) has been known since Aztec times, with the fruit sometimes referred to as “vegetable butter” or “butter pear.” The plant originated in Central America, and its cultivation has spread to warm subtropical and temperate climates worldwide. The flesh of an avocado can contain up to 30% oil (based on fresh weight), but there is very ...

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) triggers crucial signaling processes that regulate tumor angiogenesis and, therefore, represents an attractive target for the development of novel anticancer therapeutics. Several epidemiological studies have confirmed that abundant consumption of foods from plant origin is associated with reduced risk of developing cancers. In the Mediterranean basin, ...

An artificial neural network (ANN) was applied in conjunction with experimental data from mixture experimental design to predict the melting point of lipstick formulation. The experimental data were utilized for training and testing of the suggested model. By using performance of ANN, the optimum parameters were pitaya seed oil 25 w/w%, virgin coconut oil 37 w/w%, beeswax 17 w/w%, candelilla wa...

Epidemiological and clinical studies have reported that olive oil reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease. However, the mechanisms involved in this beneficial effect have not been delineated. The endothelium plays an important role in blood pressure regulation through the release of potent vasodilator and vasoconstrictor agents such as nitric oxide (NO) and endothelin-1 (ET-1), respecti...

We have devised a simple and rapid capillary electrophoretic method which provides the analyst with a useful tool for the characterization of the polyphenolic fraction of extra-virgin olive oil. This method that uses a capillary with 50 microm id and a total length of 47 cm (40 cm to the detector) with a detection window of 100 x 200 microm, and a buffer solution containing 45 mM of sodium tetr...

Over the last few decades, multiple biological properties, providing antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, chemopreventive and anti-cancer benefits, as well as the characteristic pungent and bitter taste, have been attributed to Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) phenols. In particular, growing efforts have been devoted to the study of the antioxidants of EVOO, due to their importance from health, biologi...

The nutritional benefits generally recognized for the consumption of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) are based on a large number of dietary trials of several international populations and intervention studies. Unfortunately, many authors in this field used questionable analytical methods and commercial kits that were not validated scientifically to evaluate the complex bioactive constituents of E...

Olive oil can be considered as a functional food because they carry a number of beneficial effects on the organism beyond nutritional benefits accepted. Studies conducted so far have shown that phenolic compounds in olive oil have positive effects on various physiological biomarkers, while exhibiting high bioavailability. Experimental studies (in vivo and in vitro) on phenolic compounds in oliv...