Foods and beverages (functional foods) and their components that influence human microbial communities or treat microbial infections are now the focus of intensive research. This is due impart to the emergence of resistance in pathogens making some methods of treatment no longer as effective as they once were and indeed the realization that actively fostering healthy microbial communities may be way forward.

In particular, nutrition components aiming at improving oral hygiene have been of increasing interest. Understanding the underlying mechanisms through which the nutritional components act as well as their chemical identity should lead to the development of knowledgeable approaches to improve oral health.

We invite investigators to contribute original research and review articles, to a special issue of the Journal of Biotechnology and Biomedicine.

Articles that enrich our knowledge on food and beverages or their components that interact with oral microbial communities are requested. Specifically, we are interested in articles describing not only the fractionation and identification of compounds in functional foods, but also antimicrobial effects of such food components and their ability to affect bacterial properties linked to virulence, modulation of host response to bacteria, and clinical testing of foods or active fractions and components.

This special issue aims at capturing latest advances on different topics. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Antimicrobial activity
• Antiadhesion activity (cooagregation, adhesion to host cells and/or hydroxyapatite)
• Control of bacterial acid production
• Control of biofilm formation and development
• Influence on bacteria-induced host cell pro-/anti-inflammatory events
• Modulation of proteolytic enzyme production
• Chemical composition of functional food and beverages and identification of biologically active components
• Mechanism of action
• Clinical studies of functional foods or their active components

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jbb/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: