The scope of this Special Issue Proposal – titled “Plants and seeds – fundamentals of food and health” is to bring together the results of research in the field of biochemistry, human and animal nutrition, botany, analytical chemistry, toxicology and medicine, in order to find out new connections between the availability of raw materials, technology and world’s necessities or requirements. Food or products obtained from plants or seeds are intended for different categories of people with normal or special diet (related to ailments, diseases or physical activity), for alternative medicine, for prevention and treatment, and also for diversification of existing products with priority on natural products.

A good food product could make the difference between a winner or a loser – whether it is about to win in a sport competition or in a competition with a disease!

Biochemistry comes to complement the research and may be a connection between raw materials, products and benefits. Therefore plants and seeds in various forms may become valuable raw materials of basic products, ingredients or final products, raising the nutritional and biological value of food and feed. Since ancient times plants and seeds have been used as extracts, tinctures, ointments, decoctions or other pharmaceutical forms – for preventive purposes or for the treatment of certain ailments or diseases. Consequently, plants and seeds in various forms have been used as food additives to improve taste, texture, rheological properties, or even used for biocide purposes, being useful and effective in food preserving. Likewise, toxicological research is welcome and necessary to be sure that the benefits of using these plants and seeds are not potentiated, inhibited or overcome by issues which lead to toxicogenic processes.

Taking into account all these aspects, I consider that this theme titled "Plants and Seeds - fundamentals of nutrition and health" deserves to be proposed as a special issue to point out the benefits of these miraculous products about which a true history has been written, and now we try to align to new needs.

Traditional local vegetables are the primary sources of relish to people living in developing countries. These vegetables provide micronutrients and vitamins to the human body and can help achieve food security for individuals. Usually these vegetables can be cheaply and easily accessed and found within the communities. Apart from contributing to food security, these vegetables are also reported to have medicinal values. Attempt to explore the nutrient composition and their medicinal values might help in promoting these various vegetables in different nutrition and horticulture programs. The purpose of this issue is to explore and document the nutrient composition and medicinal value of traditional local vegetables found in different places of the world.

The scope of this special issue is all aspects of malnutrition and efforts being made to tackle it. Malnutrition is one of the deep-rooted problems of large proportion of the world’s population. According to Global nutrition report of 2016, one of three people are malnourished, that can be deficient in nutrients or have overweight complications. It is believed that more is expected from the food producers and processors in the food value chains to contribute to the resolution of the global malnutrition challenges. There are researches that are focusing on the underutilized crops with superior nutritional profiles and these need to be documented and communicated to the nutrition and health practitioners. Researches on agricultural diversification and crop improvements to serve nutrition and health are of priority. Production of pulses, fruits and vegetables as well as underdeveloped and underutilized ancient crops are being studied for their potential health enhancing properties. Production of more protein sources like small animals is being intensively studied in developing countries and the results and experiences need to be documented and communicated back for awareness and policy information. This special issue is meant to bring all researches in the agriculture and health areas and serve as a focused communication tool with more emphasis on the impacts of agricultural diversification on nutritional status and environmental impacts.

More than 100 000 plant species are used for food, fiber, forage, fuel, crafts, industrial, cultural and medicinal purposes by human during their history. Today, around the world, at least 7 000 cultivated species are still in use. Unfortunately, 30 or a little bit more crop species have become the basis of most of the world agriculture over the past years. Many of the plant species that are cultivated for food are neglected and underutilized while they play a crucial role in the food production, nutrition, medicine, pharmaceutics and income generation of the developing countries for poor people. Many of the neglected and underutilized crop species have rich nutritional and essential substances for human diet. Hopefully neglected and underutilized crops will be the best local solution to fight for hunger issues of the non- developing and developed countries. Although these crops continue to be maintained by cultural preferences and traditional practices, they remain inadequately characterized and neglected by research and conservation. Based on this sentence, we have to classify and characterize neglected and underutilized crops.

This special issue will focus on characterization of neglected and underutilized crops for food, nutritional, energy, medicinal and pharmacological properties.

Therapeutic foods can be used as anti-aging dietary supplements. The design of specific foods for therapeutic purposes may involve the alteration in specific plasma biomarkers that are linked to tissue growth and cell division (telomere maintenance). Accelerated aging and dietary supplements are now closely linked to neuroendocrine disease and chronic disease. The special issue that may be thematic or have practical significance may involve the identification of specific dietary supplements that may effect genes or microRNAs and these anti-aging diets are important as nutritional interventions for rapid reversal of metabolic disease in global communities.

The scope of this Journal is to bring together the nutrition and biochemistry researchers for finding a real connection between food, diet and good health. A very important step is to find out the processes that go after we ingest the food and to understand the clinical biochemistry. A fit diet for a certain person could make the difference between a healthy person and a sick one, or between a winner and a looser. Also, some products for special nutrition has to be connected to clinical biochemistry, for understanding the mechanism of using the nutrients and fulfill the needs of the organism. Clinical biochemistry comes to complete the research and gives very important explanations about the organism ability to use the nutrients from diet and supplements, having in view a very good health status and the possibility of the best performance with a special nutrition.

In recent years, carotenoids have received a great deal of attention as potential anti-cancer and anti-aging compounds. They represent one of the most widespread groups of naturally occurring pigments, synthesized by plants, algae, and photosynthetic bacteria. Fruits and vegetables provide most of the carotenoids in the human diet. These compounds are powerful antioxidants, protecting the cells of the body from damage caused by free radicals. Besides, carotenoids are believed to enhance the function of the immune system and have shown the ability to stimulate cell-to-cell communication. This special issue is dedicated to the biology, chemistry and health properties of carotenoids. For better understanding the physiological effects of plant carotenoids this issue should involve the most recent developments in biology, chemistry, and biochemistry of these active compounds with special focus on recent studies on the role of carotenoids in gene regulation, apoptosis and angiogenesis in order to improve the knowledge on the possible mechanism by which carotenoids regulate immune function and cancer.

Current society dynamics require novel nutritious food, new suitable formulations, innovative conservation technologies, adequate cultural practices and improved food chain supply. In addition, global population is expected to rise from seven billion currently to almost nine billion by the year 2040. Accordingly, the biggest challenge for food security is not only feeding the poorest but also feeding an ever expanding middle class population. Problems connected to food insecurity seriously constrain accessibility of nutritious diets with a balanced intake of proteins, micronutrients, macro-minerals or essential fatty acids. Some specially formulated foods such as fortified blended foods, ready-to-use foods (pastes/compressed bars/biscuits), complementary food supplements (CFS), micronutrient powders, powdered CFS containing (micro)nutrients, protein, amino acids and/or enzymes or lipid-based nutrient supplements. Furthermore, several industrial by-products might be included in the indicated formulations. This special issue will focus on alternatives to the challenge of defining new effective food formulations, emerging technologies to enhance food production and new conservation technologies that might augment food commodities shelf-life or extend their commercialization to further markets.

The special issue is particularly seeking papers reporting on research intended to solve any of following scientific challenges:

Inovations and research in Clinical Nutrition are very important because can defined the nutrition therapy for medicals offer the best support for pacients and can to be interesting for health by all people.

The scope of this Journal is to bring together the nutrition and biochemistry researchers for finding a real connection between food, diet, training, age, sport, good health and sport performance. A fit diet for a certain athlete could be the difference between the winner and the looser. Also, sport nutrition has to be connected to clinical biochemistry, for understanding the mechanism of using the nutrients and fulfill the needs of the organism. The coach, team/athlete physician, and the nutritionist have to cooperate and chose the best diet, training program and nutritional supplements for athletes. Clinical biochemistry comes to complete the research and gives very important explanations about the organism ability to use the nutrients from diet and supplements, having in view a very good health status for athlete and possibility of the best performance.