Vitamin E is one of the most important essential vitamins to support the regulation of oxidative stress in human body. Tocotrienols are part of the vitamin E family. The potentials of tocotrienols as nutraceutical ingredient are largely understated due to low oral bioavailability, which is a common problem associated with fat-soluble bioactive compounds. Nanoencapsulation technology offers innovative solutions to enhance the delivery mechanisms of these compounds. In this study, the effect of nanoencapsulation on the oral bioavailability and tissue distribution of tocotrienols were investigated using two types of formulations, i.e. nanovesicles (NV-T3) and solid lipid nanoparticles (NP-T3). At least 5-fold increment in maximum plasma concentrations, evident with dual-peak pharmacokinetic profiles, were observed after oral administration of nano-encapsulated tocotrienols. Plasma tocotrienol composition showed a shift from α-tocotrienol dominant in control group (Control-T3) to γ-tocotrienol dominant after nanoencapsulation. Tissue distribution of tocotrienols was found to be strongly influenced by the type of nanoformulation. Both nanovesicles (NV-T3) and nanoparticles (NP-T3) showed elevated accumulation in the kidneys and liver (5-fold) compared to control group while selectivity for α-tocotrienol was evident for NP-T3. In brain and liver of rats given NP-T3, α-tocotrienol emerged as the dominant congener (>80%). Acute oral administration of nanoencapsulated tocotrienols did not show signs of toxicity. The study concluded enhanced bioavailability and selective tissue accumulation of tocotrienol congeners when delivered via nanoencapsulation.
Mung bean is an inexpensive yet sustainable protein source. Current work compared the effects of freeze (FD), spray (SD) and oven drying (OD), on mung bean protein isolate (MBPI) produced on pilot scale. All samples showed no dissociation of protein subunits and were thermally stable (Td = 157.90-158.07 °C). According to morphological studies, FD formed a porous protein while SD and OD formed wrinkled and compact crystals, respectively. FD and SD formed elastic gels with better gelling capacity than OD (aggregated gel). FD showed exceptional protein solubility, water and oil absorption capacity (4.23 g/g and 8.38 g/g, respectively). SD demonstrated the smallest particle size, excellent emulsion activity index (29.21 m2/g) and stability (351.90 min) and the highest β-sheet amount (37.61%). FTIR spectra for all samples showed characteristic peaks which corresponded well to the secondary structure of legume proteins. Rheological analysis revealed that gelation temperature for all MBPI lied around 90 °C. Current work described the different final properties achieved for MBPI produced under different drying techniques that allowed tailoring for different food systems, whereby FD is ideal for meat extender, SD is suitable for meat emulsion while OD is suitable in general protein-based application.
Fructooligosaccharides can be produced by direct enzymatic conversion from sucrose-rich sugarcane syrup (SS) consisting of 58.93% sucrose yielding 21.28 g FOS/100 g sucrose. This study evaluated the prebiotic effect of unpurified/purified SS containing FOS for the modulation of the human intestinal microbial composition and short-chain fatty acid production. The unpurified and purified FOS substrates, which were a mixture of 1-kestose, nystose and 1F-fructosylnystose, were supplemented into human faecal culture using a pH-controlled batch fermentation system and significantly increased the Bifidobacterium counts after 5 h fermentation, while Bacteroides/Prevotella counts were highest throughout 24 h fermentation. Meanwhile, Lactobacillus/Enterococcus exhibited a slight increase after 5 h fermentation before reaching a plateau afterwards. The steady Bacteroides/Prevotella growth and increased Bifidobacterium population promoted an increase in the production of short-chain fatty acids acetate (58 ± 2.70 mM), propionate (9.19 ± 5.94 mM) and butyrate (7.15 ± 2.28 mM). These results provide evidence that representative gut microbiota could utilise the enzymatically synthesised FOS to generate short-chain fatty acids as metabolites in pH-controlled conditions, thus FOS from SS are a potential prebiotic ingredient for foods and health drinks.
Vegetable sauerkraut is a traditional fermented food. Due to oxidation reactions that occur during storage, the quality and flavor in different periods will change. In this study, the quality evaluation and flavor characteristics of 13 groups of vegetable sauerkraut samples with different storage time were analyzed by using physical and chemical parameters combined with electronic nose. Photographs of samples of various periods were collected, and a convolutional neural network (CNN) framework was established. The relationship between total phenol oxidative decomposition and flavor compounds was linearly negatively correlated. The vegetable sauerkraut during storage can be divided into three categories (full acceptance period, acceptance period and unacceptance period) by principal component analysis and Fisher discriminant analysis. The CNN parameters were fine-tuned based on the classification results, and its output results can reflect the quality changes and flavor characteristics of the samples, and have better fitting, prediction capabilities. After 50 epochs of the model, the accuracy of three sets of data namely training set, validation set and test set recorded 94%, 85% and 93%, respectively. In addition, the accuracy of CNN in identifying different quality sauerkraut was 95.30%. It is proved that the convolutional neural network has excellent performance in predicting the quality of Szechuan Sauerkraut with high reliability.
Food allergen labelling is mandatory and regulated whilst precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) remains voluntary in most countries. It is the aim of this study to identify the food allergens declared in food products sold in a developing country and to what extent food allergens and PAL are emphasised in the products. A total of 505 food and beverages (snacks, baked goods, confectionary, baby food, condiments & jams, beverages, powder & paste, instant food, chilled & frozen food and canned food) were evaluated in Malaysia. Soybean represents the largest group of food allergen declared in labels, followed by wheat and milk products. Thirteen variations of contains statement were found with "Contains [allergen(s)]" being the most common (55.02%). There were 22 different types of "may contain" statements with 'May contain traces of [allergen(s)]' being the most common advice labelling used (55.41%). Different font type or emphasis such as brackets (51.57%) and bold font (33.86%) were used to inform consumers about presence of allergens. The national regulations on food allergen labelling are then critically contrasted with other Asian countries and the EU Regulation No. 1169/2011, which represents one of the most stringent food regulations in the world. Improving current allergen labelling limitations and practices would be of great benefit to consumers to prevent risk of food hypersensitivity.
An international survey among consumers in developing countries from Asia and Africa on food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) was carried out using structured questionnaires. Data were collected from 453 consumers comprising 265 from Africa and 188 from Asia. Significant difference (p
Diacylglycerol (DAG) is commonly known as one of the precursors for 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol esters (3-MCPDE) and glycidyl esters (GE) formation. Besides, 3-MCPDE and GE are heat-induced contaminants which can be formed in fat-containing baked products during the baking process. This study attempted to replace the conventional palm-based shortening (SH) with a healthier fat, namely soybean oil-based diacylglycerol stearin (SDAG) in producing biscuits. The effects of different baking temperatures (200, 210 and 220 °C) and SDAG:SH fat blend ratios (0:100, 60:40 (D64S), 80:20 (D82S), 100:0, w/w) towards the biscuits' physical properties were evaluated. Moreover, the oxidative stability, 3-MCPDPE and GE formation in the fats extracted from the biscuits were also investigated. SDAG-produced biscuit showed slight reductions in the spread ratio compared to the SH-produced biscuit. The elevated baking temperatures resulted in biscuits with increased hardness and low moisture content. Pure SDAG and the other fat blends exhibited significant (p
We investigated the genetic relatedness, antibiotic resistance and biofilm-producing ability of 114 strains of Salmonella, belonged to three serotypes (Corvallis, Brancaster and Albany), isolated from naturally contaminated poultry and their environment in wet markets and smale-scale processing plant from northern Malaysia. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis revealed that Salmonella strains isolated from various wet markets were clonally related, suggesting the widespread dissemination of these three serotypes in northern Malaysia. All except one strain of Salmonella were resistant to more than two classes of antibiotics, hence regarded as multidrug resistant (MDR). Resistance to sulphonamide (96.5%), ampicillin (89.5%), tetracycline (85.1%), chloramphenicol (75.4%), trimethoprim (68.4%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (67.5%), streptomycin (58.8%) and nalidixic acid (44.4%) were observed. Resistance determinants, floR, cmlA, tetA, tetB, tetG, temB, blaPSE-1, sul1, sul2, qnrA, qnrS, strA and aadA were detected by PCR among MDR Salmonella strains. Seventy-six strains (66.7%) harboured class-I integrons. The gene cassettes identified were dfrA1, dfrA12, aadA2 and an open reading frame orfC with unknown function. All Salmonella strains produced biofilm and 69.3% of them were strong biofilm-producers. Our findings suggested that most likely, persistent Salmonella colonises various sites in the processing environment by producing biofilm, which leads to their widespread dissemination in wet markets located in northern Malaysia.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a serious disease that endangers human health and is one of the leading causes of death. Recent studies have reported that gut microbiota plays an important role in the development of CVD, especially its metabolite trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO). Dietary precursors, such as choline, L-carnitine, phosphatidylcholine and betaine were metabolized to trimethylamine (TMA) under the action of gut microbiota, and subsequently oxidized by hepatic flavin monooxygenases (FMOs) to form TMAO. Dietary fat is one of three major nutrients in food, has been found to have a positive or negative effect on the development of CVD. Multiple clinical and experimental evidences suggested that dietary fatty acids (FAs) can affect TMAO production through gut microbiota and/or FMO3 enzyme activity. This article summarizes the existing gut microbiota-mediated reduction of TMA, discusses the molecular mechanism of dietary FAs in the pathobiology of CVD from the view of TMAO. Therefore, this review provides new insight into the association of dietary FAs and CVD, paving the way for dietary FAs therapy for CVD.
As a protein-rich, underutilized crop, green soybean could be exploited to produce hydrolysates containing angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides. Defatted green soybean was hydrolyzed using four different food-grade proteases (Alcalase, Papain, Flavourzyme and Bromelain) and their ACE inhibitory activities were evaluated. The Alcalase-generated green soybean hydrolysate showed the highest ACE inhibitory activity (IC50: 0.14 mg/mL at 6 h hydrolysis time) followed by Papain (IC50: 0.20 mg/mL at 5 h hydrolysis time), Bromelain (IC50: 0.36 mg/mL at 6 h hydrolysis time) and Flavourzyme (IC50: 1.14 mg/mL at 6 h hydrolysis time) hydrolysates. The Alcalase-generated hydrolysate was profiled based on its hydrophobicity and isoelectric point using reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and isoelectric point focusing (IEF) fractionators. The Alcalase-generated green soybean hydrolysate comprising of peptides EAQRLLF, PSLRSYLAE, PDRSIHGRQLAE, FITAFR and RGQVLS, revealed the highest ACE inhibitory activity of 94.19%, 99.31%, 92.92%, 101.51% and 90.40%, respectively, while their IC50 values were 878 μM, 532 μM, 1552 μM, 1342 μM and 993 μM, respectively. It can be concluded that Alcalase-digested green soybean hydrolysates could be exploited as a source of peptides to be incorporated into functional foods with antihypertensive activity.
Chinese bayberry fruit were treated with hot air (HA) at 48 ℃ for 3 h and then stored at 4 ℃ for 15 d. Changes in fungal communities were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing (HTS), and decay and fruit quality were monitored during storage. The results showed that HA treatment effectively maintains fruit quality and the richness and diversity of fungal communities. Heat treatment inhibited decay development and reduced the growth of fungi in the genera Botryotinia spp., Davidiella spp., Hanseniaspora spp., and Candida spp. Canonical correspondence analysis further revealed that Botryotinia spp. and Davidiella spp. were positively correlated with fruit decay and weight loss. FUNGuild analysis demonstrated that HA-treated bayberries had a lower relative abundance within the plant pathogen guild, but higher relative abundance within the endophyte guild. The results suggest that HA treatment reduces pathogens by favoring the increase of endophytes, providing new insight into the decay development and quality changes during the storage of postharvest Chinese bayberries.
The trend of incorporating faba bean (Vicia faba L.) in breadmaking has been increasing, but its application is still facing technological difficulties. The objective of this study was to understand the influence of substituting the wheat flour (WF) with 10, 20, 30 and 40 % mass of whole bean flour (FBF) or 10 and 20 % mass of faba bean protein-rich fraction (FBPI) on the quality (volume, specific volume, density, colour, and texture), nutritional composition (total starch, free glucose, and protein contents), and kinetics of in vitro starch and protein digestibility (IVSD and IVPD, respectively) of the breads. Automated image analysis algorithm was developed to quantitatively estimate the changes in the crumb (i.e., air pockets) and crust (i.e., thickness) due to the use of FBF or FBPI as part of the partial substitution of wheat flour. Higher levels of both FBF and FBPI substitution were associated with breads having significant (p
In this study, four different selected wall materials (namely gelatin, soy protein isolate, maltodextrin and Arabic gum) were applied for blueberry anthocyanin extract encapsulation. The effect of these wall material types on the release and degradation of anthocyanin and the modulation of gut microbiota during in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion and colonic fermentation were investigated. It was found that the encapsulation of anthocyanin extract using appropriate wall material could significantly enhance the colonic accessibility of anthocyanins. Soy protein isolate and gelatin delayed the release of anthocyanins, whereas the other two wall materials displayed no significant effect on the release time of anthocyanins. Gut microbiota mainly metabolized some phenolic compounds such as 4-hydroxycinnamic acid and chlorogenic acid. Meanwhile, different fermented anthocyanin extract microcapsule broth could significantly decrease the composition and abundance of Firmicutes and increase that of Bacteroidetes. Furthermore, the presence of anthocyanin extract microcapsules, especially those encapsulated with soy protein isolate, promoted the biosynthesis of short-chain fatty acids by gut microbiota. It is concluded that, amongst the wall materials studied, soy protein isolate appeared to be a functional and suitable candidate to delay anthocyanin release and prevent disease through the promotion of gut health.
Sargassum brown seaweed is well-known to contain several bioactive compounds which exhibit various biological activities, including anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity. Lipophilic extracts and fractions of Sargassum were reported to possess promising anti-inflammatory activity. This study, therefore, aims to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity of Sargassum cristaefolium crude lipid extract and its fractions. The brown seaweed was obtained from Awur Bay, Jepara - Indonesia. Crude lipid fractionation was performed using normal phase column chromatography, and three different fractions (dichloromethane, acetone, methanol) were produced. The results showed that treatment of acetone fraction exerted strongest nitric oxide inhibition in lipopolysaccharide-induced RAW 264.7 cells, both in pre-incubated and co-incubated cell culture models. This outcome was in accordance with its 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). Metabolite profiling of lipid fractions was performed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry, while the orthogonal projection to latent structures analysis was conducted to determine some features with significant correlation to the bioactivity. There were 14 feature candidates considered from both positive and negative ionization mode datasets. Seven out of them were putatively identified as pheophytin a (1), all-trans fucoxanthin (2), 132-hydroxy-pheophytin a (3), pheophorbide a (4), 1-hexadecanoyl-2-(9Z-octadecenoyl)-3-O-β-D-galactosyl-sn-glycerol (6), 1-(5Z,8Z,11Z,14Z,17Z-eicosapentaenoyl)-2-(9Z,12Z,15Z-octadecatrienoyl)-3-O-β-D-galactosyl-sn-glycerol (10), and 1-(9Z,12Z,15Z-octadecatrienoyl)-2-(6Z,9Z,12Z,15Z-octadecatetraenoyl)-3-O-β-D-galactosyl-sn glycerol (12).
Interesterification reaction involves rearrangement of the fatty acid radicals on the glycerol backbone, either randomly (chemical interesterification) or regioselectivity (enzymatic interesterification). Refined, bleached and deodourised palm oil (RBDPO) and palm kernel oil (RBDPKO) were blended in ratios from 25:75 to 75:25 (wt/wt). All blends were subjected to enzymatic (EI) and chemical interesterification (CI) using Lipozyme TL IM (4% w/w) and sodium methoxide (0.2% m/m) as the catalysts, respectively. The effect of EI and CI on the triacylglycerol (TAG) composition, thermal behaviour, polymorphism, crystal morphology and crystallisation kinetics were studied. The aim of this research is to characterise the nature of crystals in food product for certain desired structure. The crystallisation behaviour discussed in this study involves microstructure (PLM), polymorphism (XRD), thermal properties and crystallisation kinetics by DSC. The alteration in TAG composition was greater after CI as compared to EI with the reduction of LaLaLa (from 11.00% to 5.15%) and POO (from 14.28% to 4.87%). The DSC complete melting and crystallisation temperature of blend with 75% PO increased after CI, from 39.58 °C to 41.67 °C and from -30.84 °C to -28.33 °C, respectively. EI contributed to finer crystals than CI. However, the β' and β polymorph mixture and crystallisation kinetics (n = 2) of PO-PKO blends did not change after CI and EI. The knowledge on controlling crystallisation of RBDPO and RBDPKO blends is vital for proper processing condition like margarine production.
Searching for green and ecofriendly solvents to replace classical solvents for industrial scale extraction of coconut oil is of great interest. To explore these possibilities, this study performed comprehensive comparative analyses of lipid profiles and phytosterol compositions in coconut oils obtained by extraction with n-hexane, absolute ethyl alcohol, deep eutectic solvent/n-hexane, dimethyl carbonate (DME) and cyclopentyl methyl ether (CPME) using a foodomics approach. Results indicated that CPME (64.23 g/100 g dry matter) and DME (65.64 g/100 g dry matter) showed comparable capacity for total lipid extraction of total lipids to classical solvents (63.5-65.66 g/100 g dry matter). Considering the phytosterol yield, CPME (644.26 mg/kg) exhibited higher selectivity than other solvents (535.64-622.13 mg/kg). No significant difference was observed in the fatty acid composition of coconut oil by the different solvents assayed. Additionally, total 468 lipid molecules were identified in the samples. For glycerolipid and sphingolipid, the five solvents showed comparable extraction capabilities. However, CPME exhibited higher extraction efficiency of polar lipids (glycerophospholipid and saccharolipid) than other solvents. Overall, these results may be a useful guide for the application of green solvents in industrial production of coconut oil.
Two Malaysian brown seaweeds, Sargassum siliquosum and Sargassum polycystum were first extracted using methanol to get the crude extract (CE) and further fractionated to obtain fucoxanthin-rich fraction (FRF). Samples were evaluated for their phenolic, flavonoid, and fucoxanthin contents, as well as their inhibitory activities towards low density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), α-amylase, and α-glucosidase. In LDL oxidation assay, an increasing trend in antioxidant activity was observed as the concentration of FRF (0.04-0.2mg/mL) and CE (0.2-1.0mg/mL) increased, though not statistically significant. As for serum oxidation assay, significant decrease in antioxidant activity was observed as concentration of FRF increased, while CE showed no significant difference in inhibitory activity across the concentrations used. The IC50 values for ACE inhibitory activity of CE (0.03-0.42mg/mL) were lower than that of FRF (0.94-1.53mg/mL). When compared to reference drug Voglibose (IC50 value of 0.61mg/mL) in the effectiveness in inhibiting α-amylase, CE (0.58mg/mL) gave significantly lower IC50 values while FRF (0.68-0.71mg/mL) had significantly higher IC50 values. The α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of CE (IC50 value of 0.57-0.69mg/mL) and FRF (IC50 value of 0.50-0.53mg/mL) were comparable to that of reference drug (IC50 value of 0.54mg/mL). Results had shown the potential of S. siliquosum and S. polycystum in reducing cardiovascular diseases related risk factors following their inhibitory activities on ACE, α-amylase and α-glucosidase. In addition, it is likelihood that FRF possessed antioxidant activity at low concentration level.
A two-step solution based on the boundary conditions of Crank's equations for mass transfer in a film was developed. Three driving factors, the diffusion (D), partition (Kp,f) and convective mass transfer coefficients (h), govern the sorption and/or desorption kinetics of migrants from polymer films. These three parameters were simultaneously estimated. They provide in-depth insight into the physics of a migration process. The first step was used to find the combination of D, Kp,f and h that minimized the sums of squared errors (SSE) between the predicted and actual results. In step 2, an ordinary least square (OLS) estimation was performed by using the proposed analytical solution containing D, Kp,f and h. Three selected migration studies of PLA/antioxidant-based films were used to demonstrate the use of this two-step solution. Additional parameter estimation approaches such as sequential and bootstrap were also performed to acquire a better knowledge about the kinetics of migration. The proposed model successfully provided the initial guesses for D, Kp,f and h. The h value was determined without performing a specific experiment for it. By determining h together with D, under or overestimation issues pertaining to a migration process can be avoided since these two parameters are correlated.
Migration studies of chemicals from contact materials have been widely conducted due to their importance in determining the safety and shelf life of a food product in their packages. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) require this safety assessment for food contact materials. So, migration experiments are theoretically designed and experimentally conducted to obtain data that can be used to assess the kinetics of chemical release. In this work, a parameter estimation approach was used to review and to determine the mass transfer partition and diffusion coefficients governing the migration process of eight antioxidants from poly(lactic acid), PLA, based films into water/ethanol solutions at temperatures between 20 and 50°C. Scaled sensitivity coefficients were calculated to assess simultaneously estimation of a number of mass transfer parameters. An optimal experimental design approach was performed to show the importance of properly designing a migration experiment. Additional parameters also provide better insights on migration of the antioxidants. For example, the partition coefficients could be better estimated using data from the early part of the experiment instead at the end. Experiments could be conducted for shorter periods of time saving time and resources. Diffusion coefficients of the eight antioxidants from PLA films were between 0.2 and 19×10-14m2/s at ~40°C. The use of parameter estimation approach provided additional and useful insights about the migration of antioxidants from PLA films.
Fruit of salak (Salacca zalacca) is traditionally used and commercialized as an antidiabetic agent. However, the scientific evidence to prove this traditional use is lacking. This research was aimed to evaluate the metabolic changes of obese-diabetic (OBDC) rats treated with S. zalacca fruit extract using proton-nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR)-based metabolomics approach. This research presents the first report on the in vitro antidiabetic effect of S. zalacca fruits extract using this approach. The obtained results indicated that the administration of 400 mg/kg bw of 60% ethanolic S. zalacca extract for 6 weeks significantly decreased the blood glucose level and normalized the blood lipid profile of the OBDC rats. The potential biomarkers in urine were 2-oxoglutarate, alanine, leucine, succinate 3-hydroxybutyrate, taurine, betaine, allantoin, acetate, dimethylamine, creatine, creatinine, glucose, phenyl-acetylglycine, and hippurate. Based on the data obtained, the 60% ethanolic extract could not fully improved the metabolic complications of diabetic rats. The extract of S. zalacca fruit was able to decrease the ketones bodies as 3-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate. It also improved energy metabolism, involving glucose, acetate, lactate, 2-hydroxybutyrate, 2-oxoglutarate, citrate, and succinate. Moreover, it decreased metabolites from gut microflora, including choline. This extract had significant effect on amino acid metabolism, metabolites from gut microflora, bile acid metabolism and creatine. The result can further support the traditional claims of S. zalacca fruits in management of diabetes. This finding might be valuable in understanding the molecular mechanism and pharmacological properties of this medicinal plant for managing diabetes mellitus.