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.

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.

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.

The Leuconostoc citreum SJ-57 strain isolated from the sweet potato starch production showed great potential as a microbiological flocculant, but its underlying flocculation mechanisms are yet unknown. In this study, infrared spectroscopy and thermodynamic analysis were performed to elucidate the short-range and long-range interactions between Leuc. citreum SJ-57 and starch granules, revealing that bacteria cells bond starch granules via metal-bridging ionic bonds. A high repulsive energy barrier of ~8 × 10−18 J must be overcome to initiate the flocculation process. Heat, protease, lipase, lysozyme, dextranase, and guanidine hydrochloride were used to treat the bacterial cell, confirming that its flocculation ability originated from surface proteins, including GW structural domain proteins, DnaK, GroEL, elongation factor Tu, and lysozyme M1. The primary flocculation mechanisms of Leuc. citreum was proposed to provide a deep understanding of microbiological flocculants and a foundation for future industrial applications in starch production.

Strong κ-carrageenan (KC) hydrogels were fabricated via solvent replacement with sorbitol, and the effects of KC mass fraction and solvent replacement on the structural characteristics encapsulation capability of the hydrogels were evaluated. Microstructural observation showed that the 3D network structures of hydrogels exhibited a complete and continuous skeleton. FTIR spectra of KC hydrogels revealed the formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonds after sorbitol replacement. The stability against heating and freeze-thawing of hydrogels was enhanced due to the addition of sorbitol and the rise in KC mass fraction. The hydrogel with 1.5 wt% KC after sorbitol replacement presented the best stability. Frequency sweep tests suggested that storage modulus of the samples were influenced by sorbitol replacement and KC concentration. Swelling tests revealed that the hydrogels after replacement with a higher KC content (1.25, 1.50 wt%) presented higher swelling capacity, and they were more stable in alkaline and acidic solutions. When epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) was incorporated within the hydrogels, the hydrogels after sorbitol replacement offered higher protection capability. The information obtained in this study indicated that sorbitol replacement strengthened KC hydrogels, and they could act more appropriately as accountable carriers for bioactives.

Protein has been used as the carrier for protecting and targeting polyphenols and increasing their shelf-life. Interactions of a protein molecule with polyphenols are important, which change functions and physiochemical properties of the complex and provide protection to polyphenols. Interactions between proteins and polyphenols are largely non-covalent. Factors that affect such interactions include pH, temperature, and the structure of both proteins and polyphenols. Moreover, excellent stability of polyphenols can be achieved by using nanoencapsulation techniques such as emulsion, nanohydrogel, and nanocomplex formation. The use of protein combined with other compounds such as lipids and carbohydrates was found to be the most suitable carrier for polyphenols encapsulation. This review aims to describe the interaction between proteins and polyphenols, focusing on applying nanoencapsulation for increasing stability and targeted delivery of phenolic compounds.

Herein, we discuss the modeling of the pulsed electric field (PEF) process, with attention focused on the originally intended application of pasteurization of liquid foods. We review literature on three classes of models. First are the models for electroporation (of molecular scale), derived from physics and physical chemistry considerations, and their extension to probabilistic approaches which treat pore formation as a random process. We discuss the more recent approaches involving molecular dynamics. Then, we consider treatment-chamber and system scale models, which are based on continuum physics approaches, and rely on computational Multiphysics codes for their solution. We then discuss the base assumptions for several modeling studies. Next, we consider models for inactivation kinetics for bacteria exposed to PEF, including the first order, Hulsheger, Peleg and Weibull models. We close with discussions of other models and experimental approaches for model verification and obtaining kinetic parameters from continuous flow PEF systems.

Soy proteins are globular in nature and are resistant to denaturation with lower intensity thermal treatments like cooking. Likewise, germination can also alter the protein structure through the activity of various enzymes and sonication can disrupt the molecular structure through cavitation and other ultrasound effects, and contribute to some reduction in immunoreactivity (IR) of allergens. This study evaluated the effects of germination and sonication pretreatment in combination with common cooking on lowering the soy allergen IR. Germination was carried out for up to 120 h and ultrasound sonication treatments were given for 20, 40 and 60 min at room temperature. Cooking at 100 oC was carried out for 10 to 60 min. The soy allergen IR was evaluated using a commercial sandwich ELISA kit. The combined action of germination, sonication and cooking helped to reduce the soy allergen IR to single digit mg/L levels from the nearly 400 mg/L initial level in the 5% soy slurry (> 99% reduction). These levels are lower than the reported threshold values of soy allergens in foods. In addition, the germination and ultrasound process was shown to reduce the anti-nutritional properties and enhance the phenolic and radical scavenging activity by over 50%.

Marine protein hydrolysates and peptides have grown in popularity due to their biological activities and robust properties. They are increasingly studied in the functional food, pharmaceutical, and cosmeceutical sectors. This article discusses the current knowledge about preparing protein hydrolysates and peptides from seaweed, seafood, and seafood processing byproducts. Gaps in knowledge and technical expertise required for their industrial integration have been identified. The desire for natural substances to use as functional food has gained prevalence as consumers have become more aware of the adverse side effects of synthetic drugs. Aging-related chronic diseases, including cancer, arteriosclerosis, and diabetes, can be prevented by actively introducing food-based functional ingredients. Marine-derived proteins and peptides still face several hurdles to commercialization, such as scaling up production and maintaining a sustainable supply of raw materials. Further understanding of the physiological functionalities, action mechanisms, and clinical efficacy of these peptides and proteins would facilitate their use in biomedical applications and as functional ingredients in food and cosmetics.

Not from concentrate (NFC) fruit juice is the crucial clean label ingredient for new-style tea-making due to its pleasant color and fresh aroma. Here, we compared the effects of mild heating (MH) and high pressure processing (HPP) on physicochemical characters and phytochemicals in NFC spine grape juice based on metabolomics analysis. Similar compound profiles were observed between HPP-treated and fresh juices. The richer phytochemical compounds comprised malvidin-3-O-glucoside, malvidin-3,5-di-O-glucoside, quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside, quercetin-3-O-glucuronide, catechin, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, procyanidin B1, procyanidin B2 were obtained after MH treatment. Nine marker phenolics and two marker tripeptides (i.e., Glu-Val-Phe and Leu-Leu-Tyr) were identified to differentiate MH from HPP treatment, of which higher contents occurred in the MH group. Storage time experiments showed that the Glu-Val-Phe could serve as potential markers for monitoring storage of spine grape juice. These results provide new insights into the effects of processing on individual phytochemical changes and the guide for commercial application of production of spine grape NFC juice.