Chengzhang Wang

Prediction of fatty acid composition in Camellia oleifera oil by near infrared transmittance spectroscopy (NITS)

Under the serious circumstances of Camellia oleifera adulteration, the accurate examination for quality trait of C. oleifera oil is extremely urgent. For rapid determination of FA composition in C. oleifera oil, the feasibility of NITS was first studied. The quantitative models for FA were built based on PLS regression. NITS spectra is able to accurately predict for oleic, linoleic, and palmitic acids (R(cv)>0.844, R(2)>0.886). R(cv) are 0.91987, 0.95755, and 0.84447, and R(2) are 0.9424, 0.9682, 0.8862 for NITS models of oleic, linoleic, and palmitic acids, respectively. But models for stearic and unsaturated acids are less accurate, with values of R(cv) from 0.67440 to 0.69114, and R(2) from 0.6834 to 0.7587. These results indicate that NITS will have potential to be used in predicting FA composition of C. oleifera oil.

Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Oleuropein from Olea europea (Olive) Leaf Extract and Antioxidant Activities

Oleuropein (OE), the main polyphenol in olive leaf extract, is likely to decompose into hydroxytyrosol (HT) and elenolic acid under the action of light, acid, base, high temperature. In the enzymatic process, the content of OE in olive leaf extract and enzyme are key factors that affect the yield of HT. A selective enzyme was screened from among 10 enzymes with a high OE degradation rate. A single factor (pH, temperature, time, enzyme quantity) optimization process and a Box-Behnken design were studied for the enzymatic hydrolysis of 81.04% OE olive leaf extract. Additionally, enzymatic hydrolysis results with different substrates (38.6% and 81.04% OE) were compared and the DPPH antioxidant properties were also evaluated. The result showed that the performance of hydrolysis treatments was best using hemicellulase as a bio-catalyst, and the high purity of OE in olive extract was beneficial to biotransform OE into HT. The optimal enzymatic conditions for achieving a maximal yield of HT content obtained by the regression were as follows: pH 5, temperature 55 °C and enzyme quantity 55 mg. The experimental result was 11.31% ± 0.15%, and the degradation rate of OE was 98.54%. From the present investigation of the antioxidant activity determined by the DPPH method, the phenol content and radical scavenging effect were both decreased after enzymatic hydrolysis by hemicellulase. However, a high antioxidant activity of the ethyl acetate extract enzymatic hydrolysate (IC50 = 41.82 μg/mL) was demonstated. The results presented in this work suggested that hemicellulase has promising and attractive properties for industrial production of HT, and indicated that HT might be a valuable biological component for use in pharmaceutical products and functional foods.

Purification and Characterization of a Novel ~18 kDa Antioxidant Protein from Ginkgo biloba Seeds

Ginkgo biloba seeds are widely used as a food and traditional medicine in China. In the present study, a novel antioxidant protein named GBSP was purified from Ginkgo biloba seeds. The protein (GBSP) was purified by homogenization of Ginkgo biloba seed powder in saline solution, 70% ammonium sulphate precipitation, filtration on a DEAE-Cellulose52 anion exchange column, gel filtration on a Sephadex G-50 column, and preparative chromatography on a C18 column using RP-HPLC. GBSP showed an apparent molecular weight of 18 kDa by SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF/MS analyses. The amino acid sequence obtained by MALDI-TOF/TOF MS analysis showed GBSP was a novel protein, as no matching protein in was found the database. The protein exhibited significant antioxidant activities against free radicals such as DPPH, ABTS and superoxide anion and showed higher activity than α-tocopherol in a linoleic acid emulsion assay system. Furthermore, GBSP exhibited notable reducing power and a strong chelating effect on Cu2+ and Fe2+. Therefore, the present study demonstrates, for the first time, that this novel protein from Ginkgo biloba seeds is an excellent antioxidant.

Effects of dietary supplementation of fermented Ginkgo biloba L. residues on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, serum biochemical parameters and immune function in weaned piglets

This study evaluated the effects of fermented Ginkgo biloba L. residues (FGBLR) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, serum biochemical parameters and immune function in weaned piglets. Pigs were allotted to five dietary treatments, including negative control (NC: antibiotic free basal diet), positive control (PC) (NC + 30 mg apramycin/kg) and FGBLR-50, 100, 150 (NC + 50, 100, 150 g FGBLR/kg). Pigs in FGBLR-100 and PC treatments showed increased final body weight, average daily gain, gain:feed and apparent total tract digestibility of dry matter, N and gross energy (P < 0.05) compared with NC, FGBLR-50 and FGBLR-150 treatments, In addition, pigs fed with FGBLR-100 diet showed higher serum total protein, albumin, alkaline phosphatase, glucose, hemoglobin, total iron, total iron binding capacity, superoxide dismutase and glutathione superoxide dismutase levels, and lower serum blood urea nitrogen, malondialdehyde, glutamic-pyruvic transaminase, glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase, triglyceride and total cholesterol levels than those fed with PC and NC diets (P < 0.05). Moreover, feeding FGBLR-100 could increase levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgA and IgM, as well as lymphocyte transformation rates, ratio of CD4+ to CD8+ cells and proportions of CD2+, CD4+, B, major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-I and MHC-II cells, and can decrease proportion of CD8+ cells in blood of piglets compared with PC and NC groups (P < 0.05). These results indicate that dietary supplementation with 10% of FGBLR showed greatest beneficial effects on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, serum biochemical parameters and immune function in weaned piglets, which were superior to antibiotic supplemental diets.

Chemical constituents and structural characterization of polysaccharides from four typical bamboo species leaves.

In order to find bamboo leaves with high contents of bioactive polysaccharides, 32 samples were chosen to analyze their polysaccharide content by GC and sulfuric acid-anthrone colorimetric assays. Purified polysaccharides (BLPS) were separated from the four varieties P. nigra (Lodd.) Munro (PN), P. vivax McClure (PV), Chimonobambusa quadrangularis (Fenzi) Makino (CQ), and P. bambussoides cv. Tanakae (PB) by ultrasound extraction, solution precipitation, ion exchange resin, DEAE-52 and Sephadex G-100 chromatography. BLPS structural characterization was accomplished by HPLC-GPC, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) and NaIO4-HIO4 oxidation reactions. The results showed that the total polysaccharides of the bamboo leaves in samples 1–32 ranged between 1.4% and 5.4%, Samples No. 29–No. 32 (PN, PV, CQ, and PB) contained 2–3 fold more polysaccharides than No. 1~No. 28 among the 32 different species, particularly the content of galactose was in a range of 21.5%–34.1% for these four typical bamboo species leaves, which was also more than 2–3 fold higher than in No. 1–No. 28. Sugar analysis indicated that PN-PBLPS-1, PV-PBLPS-1, CQ-PBLPS-1 and PB-PBLPS-1 from the four varieties were homogeneous polysaccharides with molecular weights of 2.04 × 104, 1.15 × 104, 8.75 × 104 and 1.48 × 104 Da, respectively. PB-PBLPS-1 was a mixture of α-galactopyranose and β-d-glucopyranose linkages with α-(1→6) or β-(1→6)glycosidic bonds, while PN-PBLPS-1, PV-PBLPS-1, and CQ-PBLPS-1 had α galactopyranose linkages with α-(1→6) glycosidic bonds.

Adsorption characteristics of adsorbent resins and antioxidant capacity for enrichment of phenolics from two-phase olive waste.

In this study, the adsorption properties of nine resins including polyamide resin (30-60), polyamide resin (60-100) AB-8, S-8, D-101, NKA-9, NKA-II, XDA-1 and XDA-4 for enrichment phenolics of the olive waste were investigated. XDA-1 and NKA-II were chosen for further study due to their outstanding adsorption and desorption capacity. XDA-1 and NKA-II had similar adsorption and desorption behaviors for phenolics of olive waste. The adsorption mechanism could be better explained by pseudo second-order kinetics model and Freundlich isotherm model, and the adsorption processes were spontaneously and exothermic. The experiment of gradient elution were carried out through treated XDA-1 resins column, the result indicated the total phenolics were mainly obtained from the 40% and 60% ethanol fraction. The order of antioxidant capacity by DPPH  , ABTS+ radical and FRAP assay was similar with the content of phenolics from fraction elution. The compositions of phenolics from different elution fractions were determined by reversed phase-HPLC-DAD method. Gallic acid, hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol and ferulic acid were the major constituent in the fraction elute, and the content of hydroxytyrosol reached to the 41.69mg/g. The above results revealed the synergistic effects of the different phenolics contribute to the antioxidant capacity.

Antimicrobial activities of phenethyl isothiocyanate isolated from horseradish

Phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) was obtained from horseradish. The preparation procedure was as follows: the horseradish powder was hydrolysed in the water first, and then, after filtration, the residue was extracted by petroleum ether; finally, PEITC was isolated by silica gel column. The structure of PEITC was identified by IR, MS, 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR chromatography methods. The inhibitory activities of PEITC against Gibberella zeae, Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri, Cytospora sp. and Phytophthora capsisi showed that PEITC had good inhibition effects. The EC50 values of G. zeae, X. axonopodis pv. citri, Cytospora sp. and P. capsisi were 13.92, 1.20, 0.73 and 3.69 µg mL−1, respectively.

Identification and Detection of Adulterated Camellia Oleifera Abel. Oils by Near Infrared Transmittance Spectroscopy

Under the serious circumstances of Camellia oleifera adulteration, the accurate examination for quality trait of C. oleifera oil is extremely urgent. The use of near infrared transmittance spectroscopy as a rapid and cost-efficient classification technique for the authentication of Camellia oil was investigated. At the same time, the feasibility of near infrared transmittance spectroscopy for the rapid determination of soybean oil and maize oil adulterated in binary and ternary system Camellia oils was explored. The results showed that identifications was made based on the slight difference in raw near infrared transmittance spectra in Camellia oils, soybean oils, maize oils, and those adulterated with soybean and maize oil with discriminant equations techniques. Furthermore, the performance of near infrared transmittance spectroscopy models for binary and ternary system adulterated Camellia oils was satisfactory. Moreover, the near infrared transmittance spectroscopy calibration model of soybean oil (0–50%) in binary system adulterated Camellia oils was the best, and correlation coefficients of the cross-validation (Rcv) was 0.99999. For the near infrared transmittance spectroscopy calibration model of maize oil in binary system (0–50%) and ternary system (0–40%) adulterated Camellia oils, the Rcv were 0.99996 and 0.99961, respectively. In addition, the coefficients of external validation for three models were obtained (0.9998, 0.9999, and 0.9967, respectively). In all, near infrared transmittance spectroscopy could be conducted to identify Camellia oils and detect soybean oil and maize oil adulterated in binary and ternay system Camellia oils from the methodology.

Phenolic extracts from Rhus verniciflua Stokes bark by decompressing inner ebullition and their antioxidant activities.

Decompressing inner ebullition (DIE) can reduce the extraction liquid boiling point and polyphenols oxidation in the extraction process. The aim of this study is to optimise the phenolic extraction process by DIE and to examine the antioxidant activities. The extraction process parameters were observed by central composite design. The antioxidant activity was measured using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reducing power assays. The results showed that the optimal extraction condition is extract time of 90 min, temperature of 45°C, solid–liquid ratio of 1:20 g/mL, vacuum degree of − 0.08 MPa, ethanol concentration of 60%, while the phenolic content was 5.4%. The phenolic extracts from Rhus verniciflua Stokes bark had better antioxidant activities; the antioxidant activity (IC50) of the DIE was 20 μg/mL by the DPPH method. The reducing power of the phenolic extracts was significantly related to their total phenolic content (R = 0.9903). The results presented show that the DIE method is an effective method for polyphenols extraction.

Novel urushiol derivatives as HDAC8 inhibitors: rational design, virtual screening, molecular docking and molecular dynamics studies

Three series of novel urushiol derivatives were designed by introducing a hydroxamic acid moiety into the tail of an alkyl side chain and substituents with differing electronic properties or steric bulk onto the benzene ring and alkyl side chain. The compounds’ binding affinity toward HDAC8 was screened by Glide docking. The highest-scoring compounds were processed further with molecular docking, MD simulations, and binding free energy studies to analyze the binding modes and mechanisms. Ten compounds had Glide scores of −8.2 to −10.2, which revealed that introducing hydroxy, carbonyl, amino, or methyl ether groups into the alkyl side chain or addition of –F, –Cl, sulfonamide, benzamido, amino, or hydroxy substituents on the benzene ring could significantly increase binding affinity. Molecular docking studies revealed that zinc ion coordination, hydrogen bonding, and hydrophobic interactions contributed to the high calculated binding affinities of these compounds toward HDAC8. MD simulations and binding free energy studies showed that all complexes possessed good stability, as characterized by low RMSDs, low RMSFs of residues, moderate hydrogen bonding and zinc ion coordination and low values of binding free energies. Hie147, Tyr121, Phe175, Hip110, Phe119, Tyr273, Lys21, Gly118, Gln230, Leu122, Gly269, and Gly107 contributed favorably to the binding; and Van der Waals and electrostatic interactions provided major contributions to the stability of these complexes. These results show the potential of urushiol derivatives as HDAC8 binding lead compounds, which have great therapeutic potential in the treatment of various malignancies, neurological disorders, and human parasitic diseases.