This research aimed to study the preventive and relieving outcomes of kiwi berry on constipation. The administration of kiwi berries to mice resulted in a significant increase in body weight gain of 148.2% compared to mice that were constipated. The number of stools and the water content of stools both increased by 138.5% and 106.5%, respectively. The gastrointestinal transit rate increased by 45.3%, and the time it took for the first dark stool to form decreased by 57.5%. The levels of the excitability neurotransmitters were found to be higher in the group that had been given kiwi berries in comparison to the group that had been given loperamide. The opposite results were produced by vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and aquaporin-3 (AQP3). In addition, kiwi berry consumption may lessen epithelial cell apoptosis and promote colon health. All the results point to kiwi berries as an extremely promising food supplement for the prevention and relief of constipation in the future since they successfully prevent and alleviate constipation brought on by loperamide.
Pyrethroids can be ingested by humans through eating contaminated oysters, which is potentially harmful to health. This study aimed to investigate the effects of raw, steaming, and roasting on cypermethrin (CP) and fenpropathrin (FP) in oysters during simulated digestion. Results showed that the amount of released CP and FP was different from raw (CP: 0.617 µg·g −1, FP: 0.266 µg·g −1), steaming (CP: 0.498 µg·g −1, FP: 0.660 µg·g −1), and roasting (CP: 1.186 µg·g −1, FP: 0.588 µg·g −1) at the end of simulated digestion. The share of cis-CP and low-efficiency CP increased significantly ( p < 0.05), and the share of high-efficiency trans-CP did not maintain a high level for a long time during simulated digestion. The fluorimetric titration and isothermal titration calorimetry confirmed that CP and FP could spontaneously interact with oyster actin, and CP could bind with oyster actin more tightly than FP. This study reveals that cooking methods affect the binding capacity of CP and FP to oyster tissues and influence the changes of CP and FP in oysters during digestion. Furthermore, the current study provides a reference for assessing the potential harm of pyrethroids in oysters to consumers.
The anti-counterfeiting of agricultural products plays an important role in protecting the rights and interests of consumers and maintaining the healthy development of the food market. Traditional anti-counterfeiting technology mainly relies on anti-counterfeiting features of packaging or labeling, which has the risk of being copied and reused. Biological fingerprint anti-counterfeiting is a method of anti-counterfeiting that takes the biological fingerprint of agricultural products as the anti-counterfeiting feature. This paper aims to take the distribution of lenticels on the surface of mango as a biological fingerprint, and propose a mango biological fingerprint anti-counterfeiting method. As the mango ripens, the peel color of mango will change significantly, which will affect the accuracy of anti-counterfeiting identification. In this paper, the images of ripe mangoes are classified by Fuzzy C-means clustering, and appropriate image enhancement technology is used to highlight the features. The results show that the mango biological fingerprint anti-counterfeiting method based on Fuzzy C-means clustering has good accuracy and robustness, and effectively reduces the impact of peel color change on anti-counterfeiting identification during mango ripening. These results support that it is feasible to use the lenticels distribution of mango as a biological fingerprint. In this paper, a computer vision anti-counterfeiting method based on lenticels distribution is proposed.
Ferritin, as an iron storage protein, has been considered to be a well-utilized iron supplement. However, the typical thermal processing of food rich in ferritin may affect the structure and function of ferritin as an iron supplement. Here, a plant ferritin (soybean seed ferritin, SSF) and an animal ferritin (donkey spleen ferritin, DSF) were used to analyze the changes in fundamental structure and iron content after thermal treatments (68 °C for 30 min, 100 °C for 10 min). Then, SSF and DSF after thermal treatment were administered intragastrically to mice to further evaluate its digestive stability and absorptivity after thermal processing. Results showed the secondary structure, oligomeric states, iron content, and digestive stability of DSF were maintained better than that of SSF after thermal treatments, indicating that DSF has a higher thermostability than SSF. Both SSF and DSF after thermal treatment exhibited higher absorptivity than untreated ferritins. SSF showed higher absorptivity than DSF whether heated or not.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disease, which seriously impairs human health and life. At present, scientists have proposed more than a dozen hypotheses about the pathogenesis of AD, including the tau propagation hypothesis. However, the exact ultimate pathogenic factor of AD remains unknown. Based on the current hypotheses, some anti-AD drugs (e.g., donepezil and Ketamine) have been developed and used in clinical treatment, which fall into two main categories, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists, the former representative drug is donepezil, and the latter representative drug is memantine. Since these drugs have undesirable side effects, it is necessary to find safer alternatives for AD treatment. Interestingly, dietary phytochemicals have the advantages of wide source, safety, and high biological activity, which is the natural route for screening anti-AD drugs. In this study, several representatives’ dietary phytochemicals with anti-AD effect, including resveratrol, lycopene, gallic acid, berberine, ginsenoside Rg1, pseudoginsenoside-F11, ginsenoside Rh2, artemisinin, and torularhodin were selected from the published data over the last 10 years and their potential molecular mechanisms and clinical applications reviewed in the treatment of AD.
COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a major public health threat. Edible plants are rich in bioactive components, with a variety of functions, such as enhancing immunity, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and so on. Thus, the intake of edible plants to boost the body's resistance to COVID-19 is a promising and possibly affordable strategy. This review revisits the effects of functional components from edible plants (such as polyphenols, polysaccharides, lectin, alkaloids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, terpenoids, and saponins) on COVID-19. The inhibitory effects of bioactive components on the virus's entrance and replication, anti-inflammatory and immune enhancement are discussed. And finally, we present the prospects of using edible plant functional ingredients as vaccine adjuvants and the prospects and problems in the use of edible plant functional components for the prevention of COVID-19. Functional components of edible plants interacted with structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 virus and key enzymes in virus recognition and replication, thereby inhibiting virus entry and replication in the host. Meanwhile, these bioactive components had anti-inflammatory effects and could inhibit cytokine storms. Therefore, we believe that functional components from edible plants can enhance human resistance to COVID-19 and can be applied in the development of new therapies.