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Scientifica 2024, a widely utilized medicinal plant in various African ethnic communities, continues to hold significant importance in traditional healing practices. Research has... (Review)
Review
, a widely utilized medicinal plant in various African ethnic communities, continues to hold significant importance in traditional healing practices. Research has identified phytochemical compounds in this plant, exhibiting diverse pharmacological activities that offer potential for pharmaceutical development. Notably, is employed in treating various ailments such as wounds, diabetes mellitus, malaria, benign prostatic hyperplasia, chest pain, and prostate cancer. Its pharmacological properties are attributed to a spectrum of bioactive compounds, including tannins, saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, phytosterols, and fatty acids. Multiple studies have documented the anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiandrogenic, antiangiogenic, antioxidant, antidipeptidyl peptidase-4 activity, analgesic, and astringent properties of extracts. This review offers a comprehensive compilation of ethnomedicinal applications, phytochemical composition, pharmacological effects, and toxicity assessments of , serving as a foundation for future preclinical and clinical investigations. By understanding its traditional uses and chemical constituents, researchers can target specific medical conditions with greater precision, potentially expediting the development of safe and effective pharmaceuticals. Moreover, toxicity assessments provide crucial insights into the safety profile of extracts, ensuring the development of safe pharmaceuticals to treat various diseases.
PubMed: 38654751
DOI: 10.1155/2024/8862996 -
Food Microbiology Aug 2024Lingonberry is a common wild berry that is often sold as jams and beverages. It naturally contains high amounts of the weak acid preservative benzoic acid making it an...
Lingonberry is a common wild berry that is often sold as jams and beverages. It naturally contains high amounts of the weak acid preservative benzoic acid making it an interesting ingredient for shelf-life extension. Despite this, their use as a raw ingredient is limited by the inherently intense sour taste. This study aimed to improve the taste of lingonberry juice by subjecting it to malolactic fermentation in order to reduce the sourness, and to investigate the benzoic acid in lingonberries as a natural preservative in juice blends by determining the microbial stability. After initial screening of lactic acid bacteria, a Lactiplantibacillus plantarum strain was used as the starter for subsequent investigations. Upon raising the pH, all malic acid was completely converted to lactic acid after seven days. The fermented juice was mixed with blackcurrant juice in different proportions. Challenge tests of the blends showed Listeria monocytogenes could not grow in any juice samples, while Candida albicans only grew in the pure blackcurrant juice. Aspergillus brasiliensis growth was delayed in all samples containing benzoic acid in a concentration-dependent manner. The sourness and astringency were substantially reduced in the juice with added L. plantarum compared to the unfermented juice.
Topics: Vaccinium vitis-idaea; Fermentation; Food; Beverages; Benzoic Acid
PubMed: 38637071
DOI: 10.1016/j.fm.2024.104500 -
Foods (Basel, Switzerland) Apr 2024tea, a typical health tea with the same origin as medicine and food, is famous for its unique health benefits and flavor. The taste and sensory quality of (Juhua) tea...
tea, a typical health tea with the same origin as medicine and food, is famous for its unique health benefits and flavor. The taste and sensory quality of (Juhua) tea are mainly determined by secondary metabolites. Therefore, the present research adopted untargeted metabolomics combined with an electronic tongue system to analyze the correlation between the metabolite profiles and taste characteristics of different varieties of tea. The results of sensory evaluation showed that there were significant differences in the sensory qualities of five different varieties of tea, especially bitterness and astringency. The results of principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that there were significant metabolic differences among the five teas. A total of 1775 metabolites were identified by using untargeted metabolomics based on UPLC-Q-TOF/MS analysis. According to the variable importance in projection (VIP) values of the orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), 143 VIP metabolites were found to be responsible for metabolic changes between Huangju and Jinsi Huangju tea; among them, 13 metabolites were identified as the key metabolites of the differences in sensory quality between them. Kaempferol, luteolin, genistein, and some quinic acid derivatives were correlated with the "astringency" attributes. In contrast, l-(-)-3 phenyllactic acid and L-malic acid were found to be responsible for the "bitterness" and "umami" attributes in tea. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis showed that the flavonoid and flavonol biosynthesis pathways had important effects on the sensory quality of tea. These findings provide the theoretical basis for understanding the characteristic metabolites that contribute to the distinctive sensory qualities of tea.
PubMed: 38611384
DOI: 10.3390/foods13071080 -
Indian Journal of Dermatology,... Feb 2024Aluminium, the third most abundant element in the earth's crust, was long considered virtually innocuous to humans but has gained importance in the recent past.... (Review)
Review
Aluminium, the third most abundant element in the earth's crust, was long considered virtually innocuous to humans but has gained importance in the recent past. Aluminium is ubiquitous in the environment, with various sources of exposure like cosmetics, the food industry, occupational industries, the medical field, transport and electronics. Aluminium finds its utility in various aspects of dermatology as an effective haemostatic agent, anti-perspirant and astringent. Aluminium has a pivotal role to play in wound healing, calciphylaxis, photodynamic therapy and vaccine immunotherapy with diagnostic importance in Finn chamber patch testing and confocal microscopy. The metal also finds significance in cosmetic procedures like microdermabrasion and as an Nd:YAG laser component. It is important to explore the allergic properties of aluminium, as in contact dermatitis and vaccine granulomas. The controversial role of aluminium in breast cancer and breast cysts also needs to be evaluated by further studies.
PubMed: 38595024
DOI: 10.25259/IJDVL_188_2023 -
Food Chemistry: X Jun 2024UPLC-Q-TOF-MS and electronic tongue analysis were applied to analyse the metabolic profile and taste quality of Yunnan Arabica coffee under seven primary processing...
Integration of widely targeted metabolomics and the e-tongue reveals the chemical variation and taste quality of Yunnan Arabica coffee prepared using different primary processing methods.
UPLC-Q-TOF-MS and electronic tongue analysis were applied to analyse the metabolic profile and taste quality of Yunnan Arabica coffee under seven primary processing methods. The total phenolic content ranged from 34.44 to 44.42 mg/g DW, the e-tongue results revealed the strongest umami sensor response value in the sample prepared with traditional dry processing, while the samples prepared via honey processing II had the strongest astringency sensor response value. Metabolomics analysis identified 221 differential metabolites, with higher contents of amino acids and derivatives within dry processing II sample, and increased contents of lipids and phenolic acids in the honey processing III sample. The astringency and aftertaste-astringency of the coffee samples positively correlated with the trigonelline, 3,5-di-caffeoylquinic acid and 4-caffeoylquinic acid content. The results contributed to a better understanding of how the primary processing process affects coffee quality, and supply useful information for the enrichment of coffee biochemistry theory.
PubMed: 38562182
DOI: 10.1016/j.fochx.2024.101286 -
Foods (Basel, Switzerland) Mar 2024Since the initial findings that food tannin/salivary protein interaction and subsequent precipitation is the main cause of the astringency development, numerous studies...
Since the initial findings that food tannin/salivary protein interaction and subsequent precipitation is the main cause of the astringency development, numerous studies have concentrated on the supramolecular characterization of these bindings. Most of these works have focused on the low-molecular-weight salivary proteins, in particular proline-rich proteins, hardly considering the involvement of the high-molecular-weight salivary proteins (HMW). Herein, different techniques such as fluorescence quenching, Isothermal Titration Calorimetry and HPLC-MS-DAD were employed to determine the occurrence of molecular interactions between three HMW, namely, mucin, α-amylase and albumin, and a complex extract of tannins composed mainly of flavan-3-ols. The obtained results prove the capability of the three HMW to effectively interact with the flavan-3-ol extract, involving different forces and action mechanisms. Flavan-3-ols are capable of interacting with mucins by a mechanism that includes the formation of stable ground-state complexes that led to approximately 90% flavan-3-ol precipitation, while for albumin and α-amylase, the interaction model of a "sphere of action" was established, which represented only 20% flavan-3-ol precipitation. These data highlight the relevance of including HMW in astringency analyses, paying special heed to the role of mucins in the interaction and subsequent precipitation of dietary tannins.
PubMed: 38540852
DOI: 10.3390/foods13060862 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Feb 2024Certain food by-products, including not-good-for-sale apples and pomegranate peels, are rich in bioactive molecules that can be collected and reused in food...
Certain food by-products, including not-good-for-sale apples and pomegranate peels, are rich in bioactive molecules that can be collected and reused in food formulations. Their extracts, rich in pectin and antioxidant compounds, were obtained using hydrodynamic cavitation (HC), a green, efficient, and scalable extraction technique. The extracts were chemically and physically characterized and used in gluten-free and vegan cookie formulations to replace part of the flour and sugar to study whether they can mimic the role of these ingredients. The amount of flour + sugar removed and replaced with extracts was 5% and 10% of the total. Physical (dimensions, color, hardness, moisture content, water activity), chemical (total phenolic content, DPPH radical-scavenging activity), and sensory characteristics of cookie samples were studied. Cookies supplemented with the apple extract were endowed with similar or better characteristics compared to control cookies: high spread ratio, similar color, and similar sensory characteristics. In contrast, the pomegranate peel extract enriched the cookies in antioxidant molecules but significantly changed their physical and sensory characteristics: high hardness value, different color, and a bitter and astringent taste. HC emerged as a feasible technique to enable the biofortification of consumer products at a real scale with extracts from agri-food by-products.
Topics: Humans; Fruit; Flour; Antioxidants; Sugars; Vegans; Food Handling; Carbohydrates; Plant Extracts
PubMed: 38474613
DOI: 10.3390/molecules29051102 -
Plant Disease Mar 2024Bletilla striata Rchb.f., is a perennial herbaceous bulbous plant known as the Chinese ground or hyacinth orchid classified in the Orchidaceae. It is native to southeast...
Bletilla striata Rchb.f., is a perennial herbaceous bulbous plant known as the Chinese ground or hyacinth orchid classified in the Orchidaceae. It is native to southeast Asia and mainly distributed in China, Japan and northern Myanmar (He et al. 2017). It has the functions of astringent hemostasis and analgesia, and can also be used to treat traumatic bleeding, ulcers, swelling and chapped skin. Therefore, it occupies an important position in traditional Chinese medicine (Xu et al. 2019). In June 2023, three farmers in Mengzi (103.39°N, 23.21°E), Yunnan Province, China, observed that some Bletilla striata Rchb.f. plants grew poorly with small and chlorotic leaves (Figure 1 A). We suspected that these symptoms were caused by root-knot nematode infection, but the galls on the roots were small and inconspicuous (Figure 1 A). The presence of nematode females in both the galled regions and the normal roots (Figure 1 B), revealed by fuchsin staining (Byrd et al. 1983), indicated that the symptoms were probably caused by root-knot nematode infection. To estimate the incidence rates, we randomly selected 100 B. striata Rchb.f. plants from each of five fields representing a total area of 3000 m2. In these fields, the occurrence of stained root-knot nematodes were 19.3%, 17%, 18.3%, 15%, and 13%, respectively. The gall rating of the infected plants in the B striata Rchb.f. samples collected from the five fields was 2 (rating scale of 0 to 5). Females (n=20), second-stage juveniles (J2s, n=20) and egg masses (n=20) were extracted and collected from roots and soil for morphological and molecular identification. The females had a white, pyriform body and their perineal patterns exhibited a high and square dorsal arch, lacking distinct lateral line (Figure 1. C & D). Measurements of females (n = 20) were: body length (BL) = 708.64±89.6 µm (554.36 to 844.51 µm); maximum body width (BW) = 461.73±47.44 µm (365.25 to 561.49 µm); stylet length (ST) = 15.49±3.15 µm (10.55 to 19.78 µm); and distance from dorsal esophageal gland opening to the stylet knobs (DGO) = 3.33±0.27 µm (2.77 to 3.93 µm). Measurements of J2s (n=20) were BL = 417.7±47.67 µm (342.16 to 499.68 µm); BW = 15.74±2.66 µm (11.05 to 25.63 µm); ST = 12.49±1.12 µm (10.19 to 15.02 µm); DGO = 2.64±0.59 µm (40.17 to 68.74 µm); tail length = 51.93±8.55 µm (10.43 to 27.22 µm); hyaline tail terminus = 18.23±3.99 µm (1.48 to 3.98 µm). These morphological features match the description of Meloidogyne incognita (Eisenback et al. 1981). To further confirm the species, we selected three infected plants from each field for molecular identification, the ITS region amplified using the primers 18S/26S (5'-TTGATTACGTCCCTGCCCTTT-3',5'-TTTCACTCGCCGTTACTAAGG-3') (Vrain et al. 1992) . A 729 bp PCR product of ITS region (accession nos. OR463907) was obtained from all infected plants. The amplicons from 18S/26S primer pair were sequenced and the sequences showed 95.29% homology with sequences of M. incognita (accession nos. MT209948.1). Moreover, a 835 bp DNA fragment (accession nos. OR469000) was obtained using the specific primers Mi-F/Mi-R (5'-GTGAGGATTCAGCTCCCCAG-3',5'-ACGAGGAACATACTTCTCCGTCC-3') for M. incognita (Meng et al. 2004), the sequence showed 99.28% homology with sequences of M. incognita (accession nos. ON416569). The morphological features and molecular data confirmed the identification of the root-knot nematode on B. striata Rchb.f. as M. incognita. To confirm the pathogenicity, ten healthy B. striata Rchb.f. seedlings were each inoculated with 500 freshly hatched J2s isolated from field Bletilla striata Rchb.f.. Five healthy seedlings without J2 inoculation were used as controls. At 60 days after inoculation, most of the inoculated plants exhibited similar symptoms to those initially observed by farmers in the field. On average, 1532 J2s were recovered from each inoculated plant, yielding a reproductive factor of 2.1. The gall rating for these inoculated plants was 2. Fuchsin staining revealed the presence of root-knot nematode females within the roots, with an average of 17 females detected per inoculated plant. No symptoms were observed in the control plants. This is the first report of M. incognita infecting B. striata Rchb.f. in China. M. incognita can cause severe infection and damage to some crops, resulting in serious economic losses (Eisenback, 2022). The growers need to take measures to prevent the spread of this nematode.
PubMed: 38468138
DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-11-23-2273-PDN -
PloS One 2024Although maize is sensitive to zinc (Zn) deficiencies, the responses of maize cultivars to the foliar application of Zn sulfate (ZnSO4) may vary significantly. Here, we...
Although maize is sensitive to zinc (Zn) deficiencies, the responses of maize cultivars to the foliar application of Zn sulfate (ZnSO4) may vary significantly. Here, we quantified the responses of grain yields and nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) absorption to ZnSO4 using 22 modern maize cultivars. The results revealed that 40.9% of the cultivars were not affected by foliar ZnSO4, whereas only 45.5% of the cultivars responded positively to ZnSO4, which was evidenced by increased grain numbers and shortened bald tip lengths. The impact of Zn fertilizer might be manifested in the dry biomass, from the 8-leaf stage (BBCH 18). For Zn-deficiency resistant cultivars, the foliar application of ZnSO4 enhanced N accumulation by 44.1%, while it reduced P and K absorption by 13.6% and 23.7%, respectively. For Zn-deficiency sensitive maize cultivars, foliar applied ZnSO4 improved the accumulation of N and K by 27.3% and 25.0%, respectively; however, it lowered their utilization efficiency. Hence, determining the optimized application of Zn fertilizer, while avoiding Zn toxicity, should not be based solely on the level of Zn deficiency in the soil, but also, take into consideration the sensitivity of some cultivars to Zn, Furthermore, the supplementation of Zn-deficiency sensitive maize cultivars with N and K is key to maximizing the benefits of Zn fertilization.
Topics: Zinc Sulfate; Zinc; Zea mays; Fertilizers; Triticum; Minerals; Soil; Edible Grain
PubMed: 38457380
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295391 -
Food Chemistry: X Jun 2024In this study, a new fermented food was developed using pineapple by-products and whey protein (2.6%) as raw materials through the co-fermentation of autochthonous...
In this study, a new fermented food was developed using pineapple by-products and whey protein (2.6%) as raw materials through the co-fermentation of autochthonous lactic acid bacteria and yeast. To better understand the fermentation mechanism and the impact of microorganisms on the entire fermentation system, we tracked the changes in carbohydrate and amino acid profiles, organoleptic quality and microbial community during the fermentation process. Compared with unfermented samples, dietary fiber and free amino acids increased significantly as fermentation proceeded. The fermented samples were significantly lower in astringency and bitterness and significantly higher in sourness, umami and richness. The fermented products were richer in volatile compounds with floral, cheesy, fruity and other flavors. Relevant analyses showed that the core microbial community was highly correlated with the quality attributes of the fermented products. Microorganisms such as , , , and contributed significantly to the fermented products.
PubMed: 38444559
DOI: 10.1016/j.fochx.2024.101254