RESULTS: PPF was subjected to alkali and bleach treatment prior to hydrolysis, which successfully removed 54% and 75% of non-cellulosic components (hemicellulose and lignin, respectively). Hydrolysis conditions of 5 h, 15:1 (w/w) resin-to-pulp ratio and 50 °C produced CNC particles of 50-100 nm in length. CNC had a crystallinity index of 42% and appeared rod-like morphologically. CNC-stabilised emulsion had better stability when used in combination with soy lecithin (SL), a well-established, commonly used food stabiliser. Emulsion stabilised by the binary mixture of CNC and SL had droplet size, morphology and physical stability comparable to those of emulsion stabilised using SL.

RESULTS: Having confirmed via histology, haematology and clinical biochemistry analyses that OPP is not toxic to mice, we further explored the gene expression changes caused by OPP through statistical and functional analyses using Illumina microarrays. OPP showed numerous biological activities in three major organs of mice, the liver, spleen and heart. In livers of mice given OPP, four lipid catabolism genes were up-regulated while five cholesterol biosynthesis genes were down-regulated, suggesting that OPP may play a role in reducing cardiovascular disease. OPP also up-regulated eighteen blood coagulation genes in spleens of mice. OPP elicited gene expression changes similar to the effects of caloric restriction in the hearts of mice supplemented with OPP. Microarray gene expression fold changes for six target genes in the three major organs tested were validated with real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and the correlation of fold changes obtained with these two techniques was high (R2 = 0.9653).