The object of the researcher’s research is plant leaves: from suitability for nutrition to influence on our microbiota | Business

Why leaves? Viktorija does not hide that the same principle that led her to the path of a scientist came into play when choosing a research object: curiosity, the desire to do things differently, to discover new points of view, and to constantly ask herself and the world the question “what if?”.

Currently, Viktorija is a PhD student in the field of Agronomy at the Lithuanian Agricultural and Forest Science Center, her field of research is fermentation of plant-based raw materials, development of functional food products.

Personal archive photo/Shaltalankiai

The scientist, who is passionately delving into research objects, has already published 11 scientific publications, is the author of 3 agricultural recommendations, has worked and is still working with food and beverage innovation startups. For academic achievements in 2023 received a scholarship from the Lithuanian Science Council.

Today we are talking to Victoria about her scientific path, research objects and current trends in the science of food technology.

– What led you to find yourself in this field of science – food technology?

– Food, functionality, health and even taste have always been important to me. I remember when I was in the 5th or 6th grade, I realized that chips and carbonated drinks were not healthy and I simply decided not to use them anymore. I set myself such a challenge and followed it – completely out of the context of my peers, but without worrying about it.

Of course, I didn’t think specifically about food technology during my school years, but my dreams of future activities ranged quite widely – from a nutritionist to a restaurant chef. Indeed, I dreamed that someday in my life I would like to open my own restaurant! It is interesting that at one point life had taken me very close to this: after going to work with the Work & Travel program in the USA during my studies, I had the opportunity to work with the chef of the best restaurant in that region.

Personal archive photo/Viktorija Januskeviče

He immediately appreciated the fact that his new employees from Lithuania are students of food science – and this is highly valued in the States – and he tried to take advantage of this: during the months of working at the restaurant, we got to do experiments, for example, I figured out how to preserve the necessary green color in the sauce and throughout the summer I researched how to create the right conditions for this.

So, I entered the Bachelor of Food Science and Technology studies at the Kaunas University of Technology, and after finishing it, I chose the Master’s studies in the field of food technology under prof. Dr. PR in the Venskutonis group – in order to delve even deeper into science and create innovations together. Because I’ve always felt the desire to do things differently, to see something new that doesn’t exist yet. And this is where my path to plant research began.

– How did your own attitude towards nutrition change after you started to delve into food, its technology and its impact on humans?

– Like it or not, you are forced to be interested in the principles of nutrition at work, you constantly learn about the latest research data in the literature, and all that knowledge shapes my attitude towards what I eat.

For example, knowing why it is better to use olive, hemp seed or sea buckthorn oil instead of regular oil and their ability to speed up the metabolism, it is natural that you will look for these oils to flavor your dishes.

But specifically in my life, one of the most noticeable changes that happened is a very conscious choice to reduce the amount of sugar I consume. Although I loved sweets until then, added sugar is now minimal in my diet.

Alternative proteins are also those foods that can reduce pollution on the planet and help us live more sustainably.

Why? Because not only did I understand how sugar negatively affects the body, but most importantly, I liked the way I felt when I gave it up, there were no more energy spikes. Consuming sugar and high-carbohydrate foods puts us on a never-ending merry-go-round: after eating something sweet, our blood sugar spikes, and we get a lot of energy – which soon drops just as quickly.

Then another dose of sugar is needed, and your energy levels jump throughout the day, forcing you to constantly consume more and more to keep your energy levels up in order to stay focused and productive.

Another thing that changed, which came along with more knowledge – the diet expanded, the consumption of meat products decreased, instead there were more plant foods, especially I began to appreciate products grown on small farms. However, I would like to emphasize that there is neither good nor bad food, the most important thing is variety, quantity and quality of food consumed.

– You have even interned in Portugal several times – what kind of research did you do there?

– During my master’s degree, I went to Lisbon to research my prepared sea buckthorn berry pomace and leaf extracts: we worked with cancer cells and observed the antioxidant effect and cytotoxicity of the active substances, and I also had the opportunity to conduct antioxidant research, which we do not do here in Lithuania.

Even later, after enrolling in the doctoral program, I started working on my topic – “Modeling and optimization of the fermentation technology of plant-based raw materials”, that is, researching the influence of fermentation on increasing the amount of bioactive compounds from plant-based raw materials. So I went to Portugal for an internship once again – this time to connect the extracts I was studying with the influence on the human microbiota, which is of particular interest to me at the moment.

I found professor dr. Ana Maria Gomes, who is researching prebiotic potential in Portugal, was interested in my research and that’s how I ended up at the private Catholic University of Portugal, CBQF – Center for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry.

Probiota are the inhabitants of our guts, with enormous and still-researched effects on how we feel, from mood to digestion, weight and disease. This year I attended a conference in Rome, where there was a lot of talk about prebiotics, probiotics, new food; and there was the idea that even something like the midlife crisis is caused by our microbiota and its changes!

Research in this area is increasing, so there is no doubt that more connections will be discovered between the microbiota and our general well-being and states, from depression, mood, energy levels, to our desire to communicate or not to communicate, our ability to focus, and more.

– You have also contributed to the creation of startups – what made you interested in this form of application of science?

– After completing my master’s degree, I took a break and worked for a few years at a start-up with vegetable proteins: we created healthy snacks from a mixture of hemp proteins and freeze-dried berries. I am also still working with fermented lemonade – by the way, this product is what pushed me to return to science and enroll in a PhD – when I felt a lack of knowledge, looking for new ways to do processes differently.

Among other things, at the start-up we also created one of the lemonade flavors with sea buckthorn leaves, and the knowledge gained in general encouraged us to look more at plant leaves that can increase the functionality of drinks, the amount of bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity, etc. After all, our goal is to make the fermented drink not only tastier, but also healthier and more useful for the person drinking it.

– When developing new products, you worked in start-ups, and not in large food industry companies – why?

– On the one hand, it happened that way. I have always been interested in innovation, functional food, and big businesses often associated with traditional products. However, I can say that in recent years, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, positive changes are visible and there are really serious and strong companies that are trying, searching, creating – from cheeses with freeze-dried fruits to kombucha and original flavor soft drinks. So I’m not really saying that I will never lose my knowledge and know how use in the development of functional products of a more traditional business.

– And how does the Botanical Garden contribute to your scientific activities?

– VDU Botanical Garden is very closely related to my work. My attention is now directed to the leaves, and the scientific collections of the garden contain a rich variety of plants and a great deal of cultivation has been done. VDU Botanic Garden base allows you to study not only berries, but also plant leaves, berry pomace (byproducts of processing): extraction of oils, study of biochemical composition, antioxidant activity, functional use – antimicrobial, anticancer, etc.

So here I find a wide field of research: I can not only compare certain varieties, but also carry out joint project activities with specialists in other fields.

The latest confirmation has just arrived that the fruit of our joint work – an article on the antioxidant effects of several different species of actinidia – has been accepted and published in the international scientific journal Antioxidants.

The applicability of my work is very broad. Speaking specifically about the leaves and roots of sea buckthorn, hemp and cardiac aralia, they can be applied in the food industry, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals as extracts or the same prebiotics. What was surprising when we delved into the leaves: although they are low in sugar, various phenolic compounds may have prebiotic potential. By the way, after studying the extracts of these plants with Portuguese scientists, we got excellent results, so right now I am preparing a new scientific publication based on them.

– You often attend and closely follow international conferences and scientific events: where do you think scientific technologies are moving now, what trends do you notice?

– I would single out two topics that have been especially hot lately: alternative proteins and fermentation. People immediately associate alternative proteins with artificiality, something fake, maybe even dangerous. Therefore, when talking about them, science puts a lot of emphasis on education and explaining that, after all, alternative proteins are our future: they are created using fermentation technologies, bacteria, yeast, various cultures.

Another part of alternative proteins are the same insect proteins, which, although they meet with resistance, being psychologically unacceptable to us, are perfectly absorbed by the human body and, for example, have been used in some Asian countries since ancient times. What is no less important is that alternative proteins are also the food that can reduce pollution on the planet and help us live more sustainably.

The second hot topic is fermentation and fermented products. Yes, STILL. It has even received a new wave of relevance – it is enough to take a look at the applications offered by the European horizon, which is dominated by research focused on this area, as evidenced by the rapidly growing non-alcoholic fermented drinks market.

It is also interesting that these scientific research trends are similar all over the world, regardless of the region, so their relevance is not regional, but global.

By the way, my colleagues here in Lithuania often ask me after returning from internships: well, how far are we behind our Western colleagues here? I smile and honestly answer: not much. We are considered a Northern European country, and what we study and work with is just as much studied and worked with by the Portuguese as by the Australians or the Chinese. And what we work with in the scientific field can be seen reflected in the latest research publications of other teams of scientists, testifying that we are keeping pace with the world and what is relevant in it today.