Red Jujube Research Articles

In Vitro Antiviral Activity of Dried Red Jujube Fruit (Ziziphus jujuba) Ethanol Extract against DENV-2

In Vitro Antiviral Activity of Dried Red Jujube Fruit (Ziziphus jujuba) Ethanol Extract against DENV-2

Identification and formation of key aroma-active compounds in red jujube as affected by different processing methods

Processing methods significantly affect the aroma characteristics of red jujube; however, few studies have explored how. Gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometric detection, gas chromatography–olfactometry, relative odor activity value and quantitative descriptive analysis were used to investigate the aroma changes of red jujube during typical processing (freeze drying, baking, frying and steaming); furthermore, the formation of aroma-active compounds in processed red jujube was predicted based on untargeted metabolomics. After freeze drying, the total aroma content increased by 0.90 %, while it decreased by 51.59 %, 74.11 % and 78.74 % after baking, frying and steaming, respectively. In addition, ethyl esters dominated the sweet and fruity notes in freeze-dried red jujube, which were formed via combination of fatty acids metabolism, pyruvate metabolism and amino acid catabolism. (E,E)-2,4-Decadienal derived from fatty acid oxidation dominated the fatty note in fried red jujube. 2-Ethyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazine formed via the Maillard reaction dominated the roasty notes of baked red jujube.

Synergistic food flavoring with red jujube extracts and caramel through the Maillard reaction

Synergistic food flavoring with red jujube extracts and caramel through the Maillard reaction

The adsorption-desorption behavior of chlorothalonil in the cuticles of apple and red jujube

The distribution fate of chlorothalonil (CHT) in the environment (soil and water) and fruits is controlled by the capacity of cuticles to adsorb and desorb CHT, which directly affects the safety of both the environment and fruits. Batch experiments were conducted to reveal the adsorption-desorption behaviors of CHT in the cuticles of apple and red jujube. The adsorption kinetics showed that both physisorption and chemisorption occurred during the adsorption process. Furthermore, the isothermal adsorption of CHT in the fruit cuticles followed the Freundlich model. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔG ≤ −26.16 kJ/mol, ΔH ≥ 31.05 kJ/mol, ΔS ≥ 0.20 kJ/(mol K) showed that the whole CHT adsorption process was spontaneous, and the hydrophobic interaction was predominant. The CHT adsorption capacity of the apple cuticle was higher than that of the red jujube cuticle, potentially due to the significantly higher alkanes content of apples than that of red jujubes. An appropriate ionic strength (0.01 moL/L) could induce a higher adsorption capacity. In addition, the desorption kinetics were shown to conform to a Quasi-first-order model, meaning that not all the adsorbed CHT could be easily desorbed. The desorption ratios in apple and red jujube cuticles were 41.38% and 35.64%, respectively. The results of Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy further confirmed that CHT could be adsorbed and retained in the fruit cuticles. Investigating the adsorption-desorption behavior of CHT in the apple and red jujube cuticles allowed to determine the ratio of its final distribution in the fruits and environment, providing a theoretical basis to evaluate the risk of residue pesticide.

Polyphenol Extracts from Ziziphus jujuba Mill. "Junzao" Attenuates Ulcerative Colitis by Inhibiting the NLRP3 and MAPKs Signaling Pathways and Regulating Gut Microbiota Homeostasis in Mice.

Polyphenols are the major active substances in red jujube fruit, and their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities suggest their potential utility in the prevention of ulcerative colitis (UC). In this study, the effect of polyphenol extracts from red jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill. "Junzao") (PERJ) on the dextron sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced UC mice is investigated. The result shows that PERJ effectively improves clinical symptoms, including food and water intake, the disease activity insex (DAI) and spleen index, and routine blood levels, and alleviates the shortening of the colon, in mice with DSS-induced UC. Meanwhile, PERJ remarkably decreases the expression of proinflammatory factors. Moreover, PERJ repairs intestinal barrier damage by increasing the expression level of mucin 2 and mucin 3, and the result is also confirmed in the histological assessment. Besides, the expression levels of Nod-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) and mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade (MAPKs) signaling pathway-related proteins are inhibited by the PERJ administration. Finally, 16S rRNA sequencing analyses reveal that PERJ reverses intestinal microbiota dysbiosis by enhancing the abundance of Firmicutes and decreasing that of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. PERJ probably inhibits the development of UC by suppressing the NLRP3 and MAPKs signaling pathways and regulating gut microbiota homeostasis, and can be considered as a potential resource for preventing UC.

Effect of BaTiO3 as a filling material with adjustable dielectric properties on improving the radio frequency heating uniformity in red jujubes

The non-uniformity of radio frequency (RF) heating is a major obstacle to develop successful large-scale disinfestation processes for agricultural products with large particles. To effectively improve the RF heating uniformity in red jujubes, the chemical material of BaTiO3 (BT) with different volume percentages was added into food-grade silicone (FGS) to form FGS/BT composite particles with various dielectric properties. The various FGS/BT composite particles were filled inside the rectangular container of red jujubes and used to evaluate the effect of matching degree of their dielectric constants on the RF heating uniformity. The results showed that the dielectric constant of the composite increased from 3.41 ± 0.14 to 8.31 ± 0.15 as the BT volume percentage increased from 0% to 20% at 25 °C and 27.12 MHz. Compared with FGS, the filled FGS/BT composite with a BT volume percentage of 20% not only improved the heat conduction but also optimized the temperature distributions among red jujube particles, which reduced the heating uniformity index in the top, middle, and bottom layers by 40%, 32%, and 27%, respectively. As the electrode gap increased from 160 mm to 180 mm, the heating rate and uniformity index in FGS/BT filled samples decreased significantly (p < 0.05). There was no significant (p > 0.05) difference in color and textural properties between the treated and control samples. This study provided the effective filling materials with matched dielectric constant in the RF treatment of red jujubes and a feasible method to further improve the RF heating uniformity in large-size agricultural products.

Sap flow characteristics and water demand prediction of cash crop in hyper-arid areas

Crop sap flow is a critical indicator of crop water demand, and predicting its variation trend is essential for adjusting agricultural planting structure and managing water resource in hyper-arid areas. Presently, research on crop sap flow in hyper-arid areas faces limitations due to inadequate meteorological data and restricted monitoring duration, leading to imprecise assessments of environmental impacts on future crop sap flow. Consequently, this hinders effective irrigation scheduling and oasis sustainable development policy. This study analyzed the sap flow changes characteristics of two economic crops (red jujube and walnut) at different time scales in the oasis in the south of Tarim Basin from 2017 to 2021 and the relationship between four environmental factors (solar radiation, temperature, relative humidity and vapor pressure deficit) and the sap flow of red jujube and walnut. By using the Random Forest (RF) model and the future climate data, the sap flow of the two economic crops from 2020 to 2100 was predicted. The results showed that: (1) walnut had a longer daily peak sap flow duration compared to red jujube, whereas red jujube showed a longer monthly peak sap flow duration; (2) in hyper-arid areas, the moisture and temperature directly influenced crop sap flow, while other environmental factor affected these two factors; (3) with the temperature increases, the water demand of red jujube and walnut in Cele Oasis will exceed local water resources carrying capacity. To achieve sustainable development of oasis, it is vital to consider future climatic changes in planning the expansion and crop structure.

Preparation of red jujube powder with high content of Amadori compounds and higher antioxidant activity by controlling the Maillard reaction.

Amadori compounds (ACs) are stable compounds produced in the early stage of the Maillard reaction (MR) with health benefits such as immunomodulatory, antithrombosis, and tumor-preventive effects. Jujube is a medicinal and edible fruit in China. It is rich in free amino acids and reducing sugar, but traditionally, little attention was paid to the formation of ACs when jujube was processed, neither the influence of ACs on health effects. In this paper, we aimed to increase ACs through controlling the MR during different heating processes of jujube powder with adjusted water content and find the most effective AC that contributed to the antioxidant effects of jujube powder. The optimal dry-heating conditions to produce ACs were as follows: The water activity was 0.294, the heating temperature was 90°C, and the time was 120min. After processing, the ACs content of jujube powder was 18.55±0.19mg/g dry weight (DW), which was more than 100 times of those in the unheated jujube powder (0.153±0.003mg/g DW). Besides, the antioxidant activity of jujube powder after dry-heating process was higher than that of unheated one. As the most abundant AC in the dry-heated jujube powder (12.90±0.75mg/g DW), N-(1-deoxy-d-fructose-1-yl) proline (Fru-Pro) showed the highest antioxidant activity (62% of equivalent l-ascorbic acid) among 12 ACs in ferric reducing antioxidant power assay. This result provided a method to produce jujube product with high content of ACs and confirmed the positive contribution of Fru-Pro to the antioxidant activity of the jujube powder.

Effect of Infrared-Combined Hot Air Intermittent Drying of Jujube (Zizyphus jujuba Miller) Slices: Drying Characteristics, Quality, and Energy Consumption Dimensions

The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of infrared-combined hot air intermittent drying (IIRHAD) on energy consumption, drying characteristics, and the quality of jujube slices. The water content of jujube slices decreased from 0.267 g/g to 0.05 g/g during the experiment, and the infrared heating plate’s temperature was fixed at 70 °C while the hot air temperature was fixed at 50 °C. Nine different intermittent ratios were used to dry jujube slices, and the results showed that intermittent treatment had varying effects on drying characteristics, energy consumption, and quality. In comparison to infrared-combined hot air drying (IRHAD), the effective drying time of red jujube slices was reduced by 40 to 100 min, the energy consumption decreased by 11.91% to 34.34%, and there were also varying degrees of improvement in the quality indicators. It was discovered that excessively long or short active drying and tempering periods had a negative impact on the drying process. Therefore, these factors should be further broken down and improved in the future. This research holds great importance for the future advancement and widespread use of IIRHAD in fruit and vegetable materials.

Non-destructive Identification of the geographical origin of red jujube by near-infrared spectroscopy and fuzzy clustering methods

ABSTRACT The red jujube quality is closely associated with its place of origin. In order to quickly and easily identify the geographical origin of red jujube, the classification of red jujube samples’ near-infrared reflectance (NIR) spectra was performed using several fuzzy clustering methods in combination with principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Firstly, a NIR-M-R2 portable near-infrared spectrometer was used to collect four varieties of red jujube samples from four representative producing areas in four provinces: Gansu, Henan, Shanxi and Xinjiang in China. Each variety corresponded to a producing area, and it had 60 samples with a total of 240 samples. Near-infrared spectra of red jujube were acquired using a NIR-M-R2 portable near-infrared spectrometer, and the initial near-infrared spectra were preprocessed by Savitzky-Golay (SG) filtering. Secondly, PCA and LDA were used to further process the NIR data for dimension reduction and feature extraction, respectively. Finally, red jujube samples were classified by fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering, Gustafson-Kessel (GK) clustering and possibility fuzzy C-means (PFCM) clustering. When GK served as the clustering algorithm, the clustering accuracy was the highest, as the value of 98.8%. Based on the experimental results, it was evident that the GK clustering algorithm played a significant role in identifying the place of origin of red jujube with near-infrared spectroscopy.

Recent Patents on Red Jujube Harvester

Abstract: As the demand for jujubes grows, so does the acreage of jujubes. However, the main method of jujube picking is traditional manual picking, which is the most time-consuming and labor- intensive in the production chain. Through the analysis and discussion of the patents on the jujube harvester, some valuable conclusions are drawn to predict the research and development of the jujube harvester in the future. An overview of various representative patents of the current jujube harvester is provided in this paper. A large number of patents of jujube harvesting devices have been summarized, the characteristics of these patents have been analyzed and compared, and the further development trend of jujube harvesting machines has been developed. The research on the multifunction, intelligence and versatility of the jujube harvester is helpful to solve the problems of low efficiency, low quality, and poor versatility of the jujube harvester.

Establishment of the Biotransformation of D-Allulose and D-Allose Systems in Full-Red Jujube Monosaccharides.

In order to reduce sucrose content in jujube juice and prepare a jujube juice beverage rich in rare sugars, jujube juice was used as raw material for multienzyme catalysis in this study. The effects of single factors such as substrate, pH, DPE and L-RI addition ratio, enzyme treatment temperature, and metal ions on sucrose conversion and D-allulose formation in jujube juice were investigated. Changes in glucose, D-allulose, and D-allose contents in jujube juice before and after enzyme conversion were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that 'Xiangfenmuzao' was more suitable for subsequent double enzyme coupling reactions in different varieties of jujube juice at different periods. Factors such as pH, DPE and L-RI enzyme ratio, temperature, and treatment time had significant effects on sucrose conversion and D-allulose production in 'Xiangfenmuzao' juice (p < 0.05). When the ratio of DPE and L-RI was 1:10, pH was 7.5, and the temperature was 60 °C for 7 h, the fructose content in the full-red stage jujube juice of 'Xiangfenmuzao' and 'Jinsixiaozao' decreased gradually, and the final yield was about 53%. The yield of D-allulose was about 29%, and the yield of D-allulose was about 17%. In this study, DPE and L-RI were used to treat whole red jujube juice, which could effectively reduce sucrose content in jujube juice and obtain a functional jujube juice beverage that is low in calories and rich in rare sugar.

Elucidation of baking induced changes in key odorants of Red Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill. cv.‘Junzao’)

Elucidation of baking induced changes in key odorants of Red Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill. cv.‘Junzao’)

Research and Validation of Vibratory Harvesting Device for Red Jujube Based on ADAMS and ANSYS

The mechanization of red jujube industry is a high-potential agricultural research field in China. In this study, a vibration harvesting device has been developed for jujube trees that features adjustable vibration frequency and amplitude. The device is designed to make jujube trees vibrate with varying diameters by utilizing different vibration frequencies and amplitudes according to the tree’s size such that jujubes can be harvested efficiently. The study completed the structural design of excitation and fruit collection mechanisms based on the working principle of vibration harvesting. The red jujube excitation mechanism was dynamically simulated using ADAMS, and it was found that the acceleration at the end of the vibration rod of the mechanism had a tendency to sharply increase and decrease, which was conducive to the vibration shedding of red jujube. A collision model between the red jujubes and the fruit collection umbrella was constructed, and the fruit collection mechanism was structurally simulated using ANSYS. The tests showed that the device effectively harvested red jujubes from nine types of jujube trees with diameter ranges of 29.15–31.26 mm, 49.56–52.34 mm, and 65.23–73.25 mm. The average net harvesting rates were 93.98%, 94.71%, and 94.33%, and the average fruit collection efficiencies were 95.78%, 89.43%, and 85.04%, respectively. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the excitation and collection mechanisms and provide a theoretical basis for the development of vibratory harvesting devices for red jujubes.

Optimization of Vibration Parameters for Red Jujube Trees with Different Diameters

Vibratory harvesting is the primary method used to harvest red jujubes. This study aimed to improve the efficiency of vibratory harvesting for red jujubes and identify the optimal parameters for harvesting at different jujube tree diameters. A model for the forced vibration dynamics of jujube trees was established, and a three-dimensional model was constructed for different diameter variations. A kinematic simulation analysis was then conducted to determine the inherent frequency and modal vibration patterns of jujube trees. Harmonic response analysis was performed to study the displacement and acceleration responses of jujube trees with different diameters to different vibration factors. Subsequently, vibration tests were carried out on the jujube trees. The results showed that the vibration characteristics of trees with different diameters were distinct at each vibration order, and the maximum number of vibrating branches differed at different orders of vibration. The vibration frequency ranges for vibration harvesting of jujube trees with 30 mm, 50 mm, and 70 mm diameters were determined as 4–30 Hz, 6–25 Hz, and 17–29 Hz, respectively. Furthermore, the study obtained the optimal vibration parameters for jujube trees by establishing the regression equations of harvest rate and each vibration factor. For jujube trees with a diameter of 30 mm, the optimal parameters included a vibration frequency of 30 Hz and a vibration amplitude of 15 mm. For jujube trees with a diameter of 50 mm, the optimal parameters included a vibration frequency of 18.55 Hz and a vibration amplitude of 12.52 mm. Lastly, for jujube trees with a diameter of 70 mm, the optimal parameters included a vibration frequency of 6 Hz and a vibration amplitude of 15 mm. This study provides a theoretical foundation and technical support for improving the efficiency of vibratory harvesting and identifying the optimal vibration harvesting parameters for jujube trees with different diameters.

Research on Red Jujubes Recognition Based on a Convolutional Neural Network

Red jujube is one of the most important crops in China. In order to meet the needs of the scientific and technological development of the jujube industry, solve the problem of poverty, realize the backward advantage, and promote economic development, smart agriculture is essential. The main objective of this study was to conduct an online detection study of unpicked red jujubes in order to detect as many red jujubes in the picture as possible while minimizing the occurrence of overfitting and underfitting. Experiments were conducted using the Histogram of Oriented Gradients + Support Vector Machine (HOG+SVM) traditional detection method and the You Only Look Once version 5 (YOLOV5) and Faster R-CNN modern deep learning detection methods. The precision, recall, and F1 score were compared to obtain a better algorithm. The study also introduced the AlexNet model with the main objective of attempting to combine it with other traditional algorithms to maximize accuracy. Labeling was used to label the training images in YOLOV5 and Faster Regions with CNN Features (Faster R-CNN) to train the machine model so that the computer recognized these features when it saw new unlabeled data in subsequent experiments. The experimental results show that in the online recognition detection of red jujubes, the YOLOV5 and Faster R-CNN algorithms performed better than the HOG + SVM algorithm, which presents precision, recall, and F1 score values of 93.55%, 82.79%, and 87.84% respectively; although the HOG + SVM algorithm was relatively quicker to perform. The precision of detection was obviously more important than the efficiency of detection in this study, so the YOLOV5 and Faster R-CNN algorithms were better than the HOG + SVM algorithm. In the experiments, the Faster R-CNN algorithm had 100% precision, 99.65% recall, an F1 score of 99.82%, and 83% non-underfitting images for the recognized images, all of which were higher than YOLOV5′s values, with 97.17% recall, an F1 score of 98.56%, and 64.42% non-underfitting. In this study, therefore, the Faster R-CNN algorithm works best.

Hepatoprotective Effect of Dried Red Jujube Fruit Extract Against Acetaminophen-Induced Acute Hepatotoxicity.

Background A liver injury could impair the integration of the body's organ system, which may cause complications that can lead to death. The dried red jujube fruit extract has the potential to protect the liver from toxic substances through its antioxidant properties. Aims To determine and analyze the hepatoprotective effect of dried red jujube fruit extract on aminotransferase levels against acetaminophen-induced acute hepatotoxicity. Methods Male Wistar rats were divided into five groups. The negative control group (G1) received carboxymethylcellulose sodium (CMC-Na) 1%. The positive control group (G2) received acetaminophen. The treatment group G3received dried red jujube fruit extract 70 mg/kg BW + acetaminophen, G4 received dried red jujube fruit extract 140 mg/kg BW + acetaminophen, and G5 received dried red jujube fruit extract 280 mg/kg BW + acetaminophen. Dried red jujube fruit extract was given for 10 consecutive days. Acetaminophen (3 g/kg BW) was given on the ninth day. Blood samples were collected, and aminotransferase levels were measured on the 11th day. Results Kruskal-Wallis comparison test showed significant differences (p < 0.01) between all groups on alanine aminotransferase (ALT; p = 0.003) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST; p = 0.001) levels. Mann-Whitney post hoc test showed significant differences (p < 0.01) between G2:G3, G2:G4, and G2:G5 groups on ALT and AST levels. Pearson correlation test showed a significant negative correlation (p < 0.01; r = -1) between all given doses of dried red jujube fruit extract on ALT (p = 0.000; r = -0.778) and AST (p = 0.000; r = -0.774) levels. Conclusion The dried red jujube fruit extract has a hepatoprotective effect on aminotransferase levels against acetaminophen-induced acute hepatotoxicity at 70 mg/kg BW, 140 mg/kg BW, and 280 mg/kg BW (the most effective dose), and there was a negative correlation between all doses and the aminotransferase levels.

Honey quality detection based on near-infrared spectroscopy

As a natural agricultural product, honey is favored by consumers, and its variety and adulteration have a huge impact on the quality. Acacia honey, red jujube honey and rape honey were used as experimental objects, and their spectral reflectance curves were obtained through a near-infrared spectral image acquisition system. Spectral features were extracted from the preprocessed spectral reflectance curves, and a honey variety classification model based on near-infrared spectral features was established by machine learning. After statistical analysis, Principal Component Analysis Support Vector Machine after processing data through Successive Projections Algorithm (SPA-SVM) is the optimal classification model for three varieties of acacia honey, red jujube honey and rape honey, and the correct rate of honey variety classification reaches 95.83%. The spectral reflectance curve was used to establish a honey adulteration identification model based on the partial least squares-discriiminate analysis (PLS-DA), and the classification accuracy was 97.92% in the test set.

Analysis on the Dilemma and Solutions of Emerging Economical Crops in Frontier Villages—Taking the Red Jujube Crop of K Village in Ruoqiang County as an Example

Analysis on the Dilemma and Solutions of Emerging Economical Crops in Frontier Villages—Taking the Red Jujube Crop of K Village in Ruoqiang County as an Example

A Counting Method of Red Jujube Based on Improved YOLOv5s

Due to complex environmental factors such as illumination, shading between leaves and fruits, shading between fruits, and so on, it is a challenging task to quickly identify red jujubes and count red jujubes in orchards. A counting method of red jujube based on improved YOLOv5s was proposed, which realized the fast and accurate detection of red jujubes and reduced the model scale and estimation error. ShuffleNet V2 was used as the backbone of the model to improve model detection ability and light the weight. In addition, the Stem, a novel data loading module, was proposed to prevent the loss of information due to the change in feature map size. PANet was replaced by BiFPN to enhance the model feature fusion capability and improve the model accuracy. Finally, the improved YOLOv5s detection model was used to count red jujubes. The experimental results showed that the overall performance of the improved model was better than that of YOLOv5s. Compared with the YOLOv5s, the improved model was 6.25% and 8.33% of the original network in terms of the number of model parameters and model size, and the Precision, Recall, F1-score, AP, and Fps were improved by 4.3%, 2.0%, 3.1%, 0.6%, and 3.6%, respectively. In addition, RMSE and MAPE decreased by 20.87% and 5.18%, respectively. Therefore, the improved model has advantages in memory occupation and recognition accuracy, and the method provides a basis for the estimation of red jujube yield by vision.