**1.2 Food glycoalkaloids: toxic compounds in our daily foods**

Glycoalkaloids are a family of chemical compounds that serve as secondary metabolites in plants, derived from alkaloids to which sugar groups are appended and naturally occurring in several plant species of the Solanaceae family, which are grown for ornamental or agricultural purposes. This includes widely consumed vegetables such as tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and peppers [13, 14].

The distribution of glycoalkaloids across plant species is influenced by genetic factors, environmental conditions, plant development stages, and postharvest practices [15]. The most common GA found in food plants are α-solanine and α-chaconine in potato, α-tomatine in tomato, and solamargine and α-solanine in eggplants [13, 16]. Glycoalkaloids have two main structural moieties: an aglycone moiety based on a 27 carbon atoms cholestane skeleton in addition to a ring containing nitrogen atom, thus shares both the steroidal and alkaloid chemical properties and pharmacological activities, and an oligosaccharide moiety [17]. The aglycone is derived from cholesterol and can be solasodine, solanidine, or tomatidine depending on the plant source. The oligosaccharide can vary in length and composition but usually contains glucose, galactose, rhamnose, or xylose units [15]. The glycoalkaloids are named according to their aglycone and oligosaccharide structure (**Figure 1**).
