グローバル教養科目（Bioactive Components in Food - Implications on Food Safety and Public Health in a Changing Environment）

“Let food be thy medicine” iterated Hippocrates in 440 B.C. More than just an energy source, plant-based foods supply the human diet with phytochemicals that promote good health and well-being. Plants produce these chemicals through metabolic processes because they are (1) needed for the plant’s own growth and development (compounds that are classified as primary metabolites) and/or (2) because they form part of the plant’s defensive or stress response to biotic and abiotic factors in the environment (compounds that are classified as secondary metabolites). Secondary metabolites particularly received much research attention for they are the bioactive ingredients that function in the human body as antioxidants, antimutagenic, cytotoxic, antifungal, and antiviral agents, among others.
In this course, we will:
1. describe the different kinds of plant metabolites;
2. understand why plants produce these compounds;
3. know how factors (both genetic and environmental) influence their levels in plants which determine the safety of these plants for human consumption;
4. study the metabolic fate and bioactivation of metabolites in the human body for their nutritional and disease-preventive/-causative properties; and
5. present ideas and concepts on issues surrounding bioactive metabolites, in oral and written form, to a larger audience.