29A-10 |
USDA functional foods multimedia project: Phytochemicals |
B. A. WATKINS, L. Davis, J. Bunch, E. Horia, N. L. Rozzi, II, and K. T. Hamstra. Dept. of Food Science, Purdue Univ., Center for Enhancing Foods to Protect Health, 745 Agriculture Mall Dr., West Lafayette, IN 47907-2009 Diet related chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and stroke top the chart of deaths in the United States. Consequently, more effort has been made to discover and investigate dietary ingredients that may be beneficial in preventing or lowering the risk of chronic diseases to eventually create functional foods. In the past two decades, phytochemicals have received much attention as epidemiological as well as animal and clinical studies suggest a role for these potential health protectants. Research on phytochemicals has established an important need to provide mainstream curriculum in the disciplines of food science, nutrition, and medicine. We have developed an educational CD-ROM and Internet access tool designed to teach undergraduate students the subject of phytochemicals. Three interfaces (body, plant cell, and world) were developed to provide engaging learning activities for students to understand the chemistry, analysis, biochemistry, and health aspects of nine major groups of phytochemicals. Students can learn the chemical structures and explore the biochemical pathways in the plant cell interface, study the effects of phytochemicals on tissues and organs in the body interface, and discover the plant sources and food products of the phytochemicals in the world interface. The interfaces allow students to navigate their way through information about phytochemicals using the paths of discovery unique to their learning styles and needs. In addition, students will learn methods of analysis of phytochemicals in a tutorial on chromatography. The phytochemical learning initiative, CD-ROM and Internet version (www.efph.purdue.edu/usda), provides an interactive multimedia learning tool to aid students in understanding the complex field of functional foods and phytochemicals. This educational product is a flexible and effortless means to update the information with the dynamic database as new discoveries are made. The project is funded by a grant from the USDA Higher Education Program.
Session 29A, Education: General
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