Health Beneficial Roles Research Articles

Sakuranetin and its therapeutic potentials- a comprehensive review.

Sakuranetin (SKN), a naturally derived 7-O-methylated flavonoid, was first identified in the bark of thecherry tree (Prunus spp.) as an aglycone of sakuranin and then purified from the bark of Prunus puddum. It was laterreported in many other plants including Artemisia campestris, Boesenbergia pandurata, Baccharis spp., Betula spp., Juglans spp., and Rhus spp. In plants, it functions as a phytoalexin synthesized from its precursor naringenin and is the only known phenolic phytoalexin inrice, which is released in response to different abiotic andbiotic stresses such as UV-irradiation, jasmonic acid,cupric chloride, L-methionine, and the phytotoxin coronatine. Till date, SKN has been widely reported for its diverse pharmacological benefits including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimycobacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antileishmanial, antitrypanosomal, glucose uptake stimulation, neuroprotective, antimelanogenic, and antitumor properties. Its pharmacokinetics and toxicological properties have been poorly understood, thus warranting further evaluation together with exploring other pharmacological properties such as antidiabetic, neuroprotective, and antinociceptive effects. Besides, in vivo studies or clinical investigations can be done for proving its effects as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, antimelanogenic, and antitumor agent. This review summarizes all the reported investigations with SKN for its health-beneficial roles and can be used as a guideline for future studies.

Revealing Probiotic Potential of Enterococcus Strains Isolated From Traditionally Fermented Chhurpi and Healthy Human Gut

In this study, the two lactic acid bacterial strains Enterococcus durans and Enterococcus lactis previously isolated from soft chhurpi, a traditionally fermented milk product prepared by the indigenous community of Sikkim Himalayas and healthy human gut were used. In this study, we attempted to investigate the probiotic attributes, safety, and health beneficial role, and hypercholesterolemia of Enterococcus durans and Enterococcus lactis. Both probiotic potential strains showed good hypocholesterolemic activity in vitro along with tolerance to acid pH (2 and 2.5), tolerance to three bile salts, oxbile, cholic acid, and taurocholic acid (0.5 and 1%), presence of BSH enzyme and its activity, and cell surface adherence. On assessing for safety, both LAB strains were sensitive to antibiotics and exhibited no hemolytic activity. The probiotic strains were tested in vivo in the Sprague–Dawley rats which were divided into five experimental groups: Normal Control (ND), probiotic strain Enterococcus durans HS03 (BSH-negative) and high-cholesterol diet (HCD1), probiotic strain Enterococcus lactis YY1 (BSH-positive) and high-cholesterol diet (HCD2), and a combination of both strains and high-cholesterol diet (HCD3) and Negative Control (HCD). The probiotic-treated groups HCD1, HCD2, and HCD3 showed a decrease in serum cholesterol levels up to 22.55, 6.67, and 31.06%; the TG and VLDL concentrations were 25.39, 26.3, and 33.21%; reduction in LDL-cholesterol was 33.66, 28.50, and 35.87%; and increase of HDL was 38.32, 47.9, and 41.92%. Similarly, the effects of total cholesterol and TG in the liver, kidney and liver histopathology, liver and body lipid index, and oxidative stress in rat liver were also studied. The fecal lactobacilli were more in the samples of the probiotic-treated groups and their fecal coliform and E. coli counts decreased relatively as compared to the control groups in 0, 7, 14, and 21 days. This is the first report on the probiotic potential of Enterococcus durans HS03 and Enterococcus lactis YY1 strains that gives a new insight into the cholesterol-lowering and probiotic product development with wide health attributes.

Protective effects of dietary carnosine during in-vitro digestion of pork differing in fat content and cooking conditions.

Muscle carnosine represents an important health advantage of meat. Ground pork samples with intrinsic or added carnosine; fat content; and cooked under low or high intensity as a 2×2×2 factorial were digested in-vitro. Changes in free carnosine and in markers of lipid (hexanal, 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein (protein-carbonyls, thiols) oxidation, and of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) Nε -(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML) were determined in the saliva, gastric, and duodenal digests. During digestion, the different markers overall indicated increased oxidation and decreased free carnosine. Increasing pork carnosine level significantly reduced protein carbonyls, loss of thiols, and 4-HNE during in-vitro gastric digestion, irrespective of fat and cooking level of the meat. Increased carnosine also significantly reduced hexanal, MDA and CML up to the duodenum phase in moderately cooked lean pork. Besides substantiating the formation of AGEs during digestion, these results show a potentially important role of dietary carnosine occurring in the gastrointestinal tract. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The ailments epidemiologically associated with red meat consumption could be counteracted by ingesting carnosine into meat. The health advantages of dietary carnosine, however, have never been demonstrated during digestion, a unique and complex oxidative environment compounded by the composition and cooking of the meat. The results obtained substantiated that AGEs formation occurred in-vitro in the GIT. They also showed that increased carnosine had an immediate health beneficial role during pork digestion in reducing the formation of different harmful molecules, including AGEs, modulated by the composition and cooking of the meat. However, in exerting this protective role in the GIT, the remaining free level of carnosine, gradually decreased during digestion. Carnosine, as an important meat compositional factor may, depending on the fat content and cooking conditions, change the image of meat from representing a health risk to a health benefit. Carnosine level may also explain discrepancies observed in the literature.

The Beneficial Effects of Principal Polyphenols from Green Tea, Coffee, Wine, and Curry on Obesity.

Several epidemiological studies and clinical trials have reported the beneficial effects of green tea, coffee, wine, and curry on human health, with its anti-obesity, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, and neuroprotective properties. These effects, which have been supported using cell-based and animal studies, are mainly attributed to epigallocatechin gallate found in green tea, chlorogenic acid in coffee, resveratrol in wine, and curcumin in curry. Polyphenols are proposed to function via various mechanisms, the most important of which is related to reactive oxygen species (ROS). These polyphenols exert conflicting dual actions as anti- and pro-oxidants. Their anti-oxidative actions help scavenge ROS and downregulate nuclear factor-κB to produce favorable anti-inflammatory effects. Meanwhile, pro-oxidant actions appear to promote ROS generation leading to the activation of 5′-AMP-activated protein kinase, which modulates different enzymes and factors with health beneficial roles. Currently, it remains unclear how these polyphenols exert either pro- or anti-oxidant effects. Similarly, several human studies showed no beneficial effects of these foods, and, by extension polyphenols, on obesity. These inconsistencies may be attributed to different confounding study factors. Thus, this review provides a state-of-the-art update on these foods and their principal polyphenol components, with an assumption that it prevents obesity.

Profiling of Altered Metabolomic States in Bidens pilosa Leaves in Response to Treatment by Methyl Jasmonate and Methyl Salicylate.

Bidens pilosa (Asteraceae) is an edible medicinal plant with many bioactivities reported to have a health-beneficial role in controling various diseases. Though B. pilosa contain a diverse array of natural products, these are produced in relatively low concentrations. A possible way to enhance secondary metabolite production can be through the use of elicitors. Here, the effects of exogenous treatments with two signal molecules—methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and methyl salicylate (MeSA)—on the metabolomic profiles of B. pilosa leaves were investigated. Plants were treated with 0.5 mM of MeJA or MeSA and harvested at 12 h and 24 h. Metabolites were extracted with methanol and separated on an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography system hyphenated to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry detection. Data was subjected to multivariate statistical analysis and modeling for annotation of metabolites. Hydroxycinnamic acid (HCA) derivatives, such as caffeoylquinic acids (CQAs), tartaric acid esters (chicoric acid and caftaric acid), chalcones, and flavonoids were identified as differentially regulated. The altered metabolomes in response to MeSA and MeJA overlapped to a certain extent, suggestive of a cross-talk between signaling and metabolic pathway activation. Moreover, the perturbation of isomeric molecules, especially the cis geometrical isomers of HCA derivatives by both treatments, further point to the biological significance of these molecules during physiological responses to stress. The results highlight the possibility of using phytohormones to enhance the accumulation of bioactive secondary metabolites in this plant.

Metabolic engineering of fatty acid biosynthetic pathway in sesame (Sesamum indicum L.): assembling tools to develop nutritionally desirable sesame seed oil

Vegetable oils are an essential component of human diet, in terms of their health beneficial roles. Despite their importance, the fatty acid profile of most commonly used edible oil seed crop plants are imbalanced; this skewed ratio of fatty acids in the diet has been shown to be a major reason for the occurrence of cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases. Until recently, it was not possible to exert significant control over the fatty acid composition of vegetable oils derived from different plants. However, the advent of metabolic engineering, knowledge of the genetic networks and regulatory hierarchies in plants have offered novel opportunities to tailor-made the composition of vegetable oils for their optimization in regard to food functionality and dietary requirements. Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is one of the ancient oilseed crop in Indian subcontinent but its seed oil is devoid of balanced proportion of ω-6:ω-3 fatty acids. A recent study by our group has shed new lights on metabolic engineering strategies for the purpose of nutritional improvement of sesame seed oil to divert the carbon flux from the production of linoleic acid (C18:2) to α-linolenic acid (C18:3). Apart from that, this review evaluates current understanding of regulation of fatty acid biosynthetic pathways in sesame and attempts to identify the major options of metabolic engineering to produce superior sesame seed oil.

Consumption of organic diets does not affect intake and absorption of zinc and copper in men – evidence from two cross-over trials

Agricultural methods may affect the nutritional composition of plants and cause complex changes in the food matrix. Whether this affects the dietary absorption of minerals that are important for maintaining health thorough life remains unclear. We compared the effects of organic and conventional diets on intake and absorption of zinc and copper in men. Two double-blinded, cross-over, intervention trials (3 dietary periods of 12 days with 2-week-long wash-out) were performed in 2008 (n = 17) and 2009 (n = 16) in young men. The diets were based on 9 crops grown in rigidly controlled organic and conventional systems in 2 replications over 2 years. The primary outcomes were intake and absorption of zinc and copper. The absorption was determined by faecal excretion of stable enriched isotopes extrinsically added to the entire menu. Within each year, the intake and absorption of zinc (overall mean ± SD; 12.35 ± 0.47 mg per 10 MJ and 44.6% ± 12.1, respectively) and copper (overall mean ± SD; 2.12 ± 0.28 mg per 10 MJ and 41.2% ± 13.2, respectively) were not different between the organic and conventional diets. The growing season had no effect on zinc intake and absorption, but the copper intake was higher (P = 0.01) and absorption lower (P < 0.005) in 2008 compared with 2009 (overall mean absorption ± SD; 35.3% ± 13.5 in 2008 and 54.0% ± 10.7 in 2009). In conclusion, organic agriculture does not affect the intake and absorption of copper and zinc in men. Consequently, it does not seem to promote the health beneficial role of these minerals in vivo.

Squalene as Novel Food Factor

Currently, health beneficial roles of natural products attract much attention and diverse functional ingredients have been extensively studied their preventive effect in many diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Squalene is one of those examples. It distributes in nature from plant to animal but extraordinarily concentrated in the liver of certain species of shark (Squalidae family) as it was first identified as a healing substance in the shark liver oil. It is now well-known that squalene is the physiological substance functioning in animal as the precursor of cholesterol biosynthesis. On the other hand, it has long history of using as an attractive resource for functional food, supplement or even pharmaceutics because it has unique physical property and wide variety of physiological functions such as anticancer and anti-hyper cholesterolemia. The antioxidant and oxygen carrying properties of squalene predicts its potential in preventing cardiovascular disease. We reviewed recent progress in functional studies of squalene both in vitro and in vivo models.

小麦・小麦加工品等の機能性とその活用

According to recent research, food and health has very close interrelationship. Other than nutritional role, researchers has focused on the health beneficial role of foods, which is termed as food functionality. Recently, the functions of foods, which are performed in human system are divided into three types ; 1. Nutritional function, 2. Sensory function, 3. Regulatory function. The functionality of wheat and their products is summarized on the basis of the latest research reports. Wheat is cultivated from Northern Europe to South America as the staple crop. Many studies are available about the functionality and nutraceutical use of wheat and their products. From the nutritional point of view, wheat is the major source of carbohydrates and protein. Simultaneously, wheat is the source of dietary fiber, vitamin and minerals. Reported regulatory functions of wheat are : 1) leaf of wheat plants are source of fiber, folic acid, carotenoids, 2) wheat bran are the source of fiber, phytic acid, ferulic acid, 3) wheat germ oil contains α-linolenic acid and high content of vitamin E, 4) wheat gluten hydrolysate (WGH : hydrolysate of gluten, major protein of wheat), 5) wheat ceramide, etc. Many scientific reports showed that dietary fiber from wheat bran has various health beneficial effects, includes, decreasing the risk of coronary heart disease, decrease the costipation and irritable bowel syndrome. WGH was also developed as the stable supply source of glutamine. Additionally, it was reported that specific peptide present in WGH which inhibits angiotensin conversion enzyme. Wheat ceramide showed that it functioned as the barrier in the skin surface by oral administration to an atopic dermatitis patient. GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) from wheat germ controls the elevation of blood pressure. Wheat and their products have various health beneficial roles for human health, therefore, we might utilize them as the source of nutrients, as well as, as functional factor to prevent the diet related chronic disease.

Plasma and buccal mucosal cell response to short-term supplementation with all trans-β-carotene and lycopene in human volunteers

Despite interest in the health-beneficial role of carotenoids little is known about the specific storage metabolism and mechanisms involved in various target tissues. The aim of the study was to search for a relatively simple non-invasive method to detect and determine the cellular effects of supplemented dosage of beta-carotene and lycopene to peripheral tissues such as the buccal mucosa in relation to the plasma concentrations. Subjects (30) were allocated into five different subgroups of 6 volunteers. The change in concentration of all-trans-beta-carotene and lycopene in plasma and in buccal mucosal cells was measured in groups of volunteers supplemented with either 15 mg, 30 mg or placebo capsules in a randomised double blind study for a period of 7 days. With the exception of supervised high fat (40 g carotenoid free sunflower oil) breakfasts and capsule ingestion the volunteers ate their habitual diets. Plasma lycopene and beta-carotene concentrations were determined at baseline and following one week of capsule ingestion. In all the supplemented groups the plasma carotenoid levels were significantly higher than in the placebo group indicating absorption of the supplement. Carotenoid concentrations, expressed per unit protein, assayed in buccal mucosal cells before (at baseline) and at the end of the study were found to be significantly higher in the groups supplemented at 30 mg/d, of either carotenoid as compared to the 15 mg/d or placebo supplemented groups. We conclude that buccal mucosal cells respond readily to changes in plasma beta-carotene and lycopene concentration. These observations suggest that dietary carotenoids are quickly incorporated into rapidly turning over mucosal tissues. It is not clear if the change in carotenoid content of the plasma is reflected in existing cells or only in those concurrently produced during the elevated plasma concentration. If desquamated buccal mucosal cells reflect habitual plasma carotenoid concentration then it is not an appropriate tissue for the measurement of acute changes.