Screening of camellias for the production of bioactive compounds and evaluation of its biological properties for industrial applications

Resumo

Leveraging extant knowledge of plant molecular extraction for the production of stable, enriched extracts exhibiting antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antitumoral activities, distinct varieties of Camellia japonica flowers will be utilized for the extraction, identification, and isolation of high-value molecules. The flowers of C. japonica will be optimized to yield stable enriched extracts with pharmacological, nutritional, and potential animal feed applications, thereby catalyzing the development of high-value products adaptable to diverse market demands. The principal C. japonica flowers will encompass eight varieties previously documented within the Galician territory. Currently, no industrially viable alternatives exist for their exploitation, while references attest to the biological activities attributable to elevated concentrations of phenolic compounds and fatty acids. Furthermore, there exists substantiating evidence of their being a rich reservoir of structurally diverse bioactive compounds, with their significance as a fount of novel bioactive substances burgeoning rapidly. Indeed, the foundational hypothesis of the project posits that the flowers of C. japonica may harbor undiscovered bioactive compounds of salient import for human health. The project's overarching aim is the identification of physiological functions and the scientific validation of implicated mechanisms. To this end, a proposition is made for curating relevant bioactivities pertaining to C. japonica flower compounds, concomitant with validating their in vitro and ex vivo activities. Toxicological studies will be imperative to ensure the suitability of the developed products. A primary directive will be the design of novel functional foods, with modulation of the benefit/risk ratio to the greatest extent feasible.