ABSTRACT
Water, a major component of numerous biosystems and food matrices, was proven to have a crucial role in conferring different functionalities as a result of different molecular structures. This dynamic behavior was long considered a limiting factor until a novel scientific discipline—aquaphotomics— showed that it can be utilized as a unique tool in assessing the quality of studied matrices. Aquaphotomics is a spectroscopy-based field, dedicated to studying the water–light interaction phenomena using spectroscopic techniques to reach a better understanding of the water molecular structure in aqueous and biological systems in relation to their state and functionality. The water molecular structure, being highly sensitive to any changes within the aqueous-bio system or its surroundings, in aquaphotomics serves as a sensor, its spectral pattern a marker of the system state, directly related to its functionality. This innovative approach has proven effective in the areas of biodiagnosis of abiotic and biotic stress in plants, elucidation of mechanisms underlying stress response to temperature changes and extreme desiccation, and diverse aspects of food quality evaluation. These findings hold great promise for future applications, reinforcement, and development of other targeted functionalities. This chapter introduces this scientific discipline, presents the basics of aquaphotomics analytical methodology, and provides a comprehensive review of existing aquaphotomics works, done in the past decade and related to plants and plant-based food quality determination.
